“Have no fear of perfection - you'll never reach it.”

― Salvador Dali

Good enough is not enough, but perfection is beyond the reach of most of us in most situations. There are lots of times even the most driven, talented, motivated person makes a stupid mistake. I've made plenty.

The last big one I am willing to share was on a drive from a small town in North Carolina on my way home to Massachusetts from Nashville a couple of years ago. I blindly followed the GPS and drove 90 minutes in the wrong direction. Until now, only my son has been aware of my idiocy, and he forgave me long ago, I think.

Anyway, this story always makes me smile and shiver, an interesting combination. And there is a moral to the story, make those seven morals to the story, although the story is not about morals.

Most of the vehicles I've driven have had a sunroof. I'm not extrovert enough to drive a convertible, and a sunroof-ed vehicle has all the benefits of a rag top with the utility of a glass roof in bad weather and winter.

I pulled into my driveway after a long early spring day. I had driven home with the sunroof wide open: temperatures were probably in the high 50’s or low 60’s.

I’m sure I had dinner a little later and might have even sat out in the yard for a while with a nice glass of cheap chardonnay or watched the Red Sox game on TV.

I remember it was a clear and remarkably beautiful evening, filling me with all the promise of a great spring and summer on the way.

I think I went to bed about 11 PM and slept soundly until the thunder woke me up about 4:00 AM. When I rolled over, barely conscious, I could hear the rain pounding, I mean pounding, on the roof. The roof? When I shot up, half-awake, it occurred to me that I wasn’t sure whether or not I had closed the roof of the car after dinner.

Half awake, or half asleep depending on where you fall on the 'glass half full' spectrum, I bombed downstairs clad in gym shorts and a t-shirt, running out the front door in the driving rain in 40-degree weather, car keys in hand.

The shock of the cold driveway on my bare feet helped me concentrate, try it sometime. I reached for the top of the car hoping to touch glass. Now fairly wet and at least three-quarters awake, and may I add, remarkably refreshed by the driving rain, I realized that no, I did not close the sunroof and that water had been filling up the passenger space of the vehicle for about 20 minutes.

I did what you do at 4 AM in the driving rain in your driveway with the sun roof of your car wide open and not quite fully awake: I jumped in to turn the key and close the roof. I still remember the shock as my gym shorts and t-shirt hit the 40 degree puddle of water on the seat.

Now, fully awake, I closed the roof, got out of the car, and stood in the driving rain, in my driveway, in the dark, with very, very wet shorts and t-shirt and laughed.

The moral of the story? Several.

1. No one is perfect, not you, not me.
2. Sometimes we get distracted on a beautiful day.
3. Everyone forgets something important now and then.
4. We all get shocked sometimes when we sit down, and conditions have changed.
5. We all wake up at a different rate, with different stimulants, although I don’t recommend driving rain, coffee is better.
6. We all need to laugh at ourselves now and then, and of course:
7. If you have a sunroof, close it at night.