A couple of days ago, I went out the front door of our house, intending to get the mail from the

mailbox at the end of the driveway. The Georgia sun was blazing that day, shining brilliantly

from the sky, and as I walked down the driveway, I came alongside our white truck, which was parked

there. Well, I must have gotten at just the right angle

because suddenly my eyes were pierced by a white glare that was just blinding. Everything

around me disappeared. It was astonishing how powerful and even painful that glare was, and

how it could completely hide what I knew was at arm's length,

but I couldn't see it. I think something like that can happen to us in our homeschools. It doesn't

have anything to do with getting the mail or white trucks. It has to do with the glare of perfection.

Let me explore.

Welcome to the Simply Charlotte Mason podcast.

I'm Sonia Schaefer.

Perfection can be a difficult concept to live with.

But my experience with that glare off the truck opened my eyes, as it were, to a new way

of looking at it.

And here's the idea.

Perfection is like the sun.

It shines brightly, which is good if we allow its light to show us the direction we should

head and to fuel our growth in that direction. But if we fix our eyes directly on it, the glare

will blind us to seeing the beautiful growth that is happening all around us. Now let's unpack that idea a little more.

Like the sun, perfection lights the path and shows us the direction in which we should head.

Our aim is excellence, not mediocrity.

...