Intro Part 2: The Solution

I hereby commit to documenting the meeting of at least one new person every day for thirty days. When possible, I will include a photo. "Meeting" a person will consist, at minimum, of the following:

• Learning his or her name
• Having a conversation about our lives
• Considering the possibility of doing so again

How will this be a solution, you ask?

There's a parable I heard from an art teacher once; it may be the only genuinely memorable thing she every told me. I goes something like this:

"The ceramics teacher announced on opening day that he was dividing the class into two groups. All those on the left side of the studio, he said, would be graded solely on the quantity of work they produced, all those on the right solely on its quality.

His procedure was simple: on the final day of class he would bring in his bathroom scales and weigh the work of the “quantity” group: fifty pound of pots rated an “A”, forty pounds a “B”, and so on. Those being graded on “quality”, however, needed to produce only one pot—albeit a perfect one—to get an “A”.

Well, came grading time and a curious fact emerged: the works of highest quality were all produced by the group being graded for quantity. It seems that while the “quantity” group was busily churning out piles of work—and learning from their mistakes—the “quality” group had sat theorizing about perfection, and in the end had little more to show for their efforts than grandiose theories and a pile of dead clay."

-(The exact quotation is supposedly from the book Art and Fear. I have not verified that fact.)

Cheesy? Perhaps. Apocryphal? Probably. But it's a useful idea to those of us who are hampered by our own urge towards perfection, and who let good be the enemy of best.

So enough worrying about awkward social situations, about whether putting myself out there in this particular instance is worth it. For at least one month, the answer is yes.

I'm going to need help. If you live in the Bay Area, we haven't met, and you think we ought to, drop me a line. If you know someone in the Bay Area you think might be interested in being met, help me get in touch with them. If you hear about an event where people will be milling around introducing themselves, send me an invite.

The project will officially start on Saturday, August 22, 2009. Encantada de conocerle.