30. The Man in the Mirror
© Bruce Goodman 9 November 2013




Alexander was a perfectionist. He’d been playing the piano since he was six. He played with competence but never gave a performance because it “wasn’t perfect”. His flower and vegetable gardens were a picture of perfection and required little maintenance. His collection of teaspoons from places he’d visited around the world was vast and ordered to the point of monotony.

All these interests were performed with great fussiness. Some would say they were performed with an energetic neurotic repetition.

What Alexander needed was a new hobby.

He thought he could take up photography, and so purchased an expensive digital camera. But he found that the camera’s automatic settings took better photos than his manually set snaps. He left the camera permanently set on automatic, and took hundreds of photographs of the same thing in an effort to take the perfect photo.

Ah! he thought. I shall take up blogging as a hobby instead. He began. First a heading: THE MAN IN THE MIRROR.

Alexander was a perfectionist. He’d been playing the piano since he was six. He played with competence but never gave a performance because it “wasn’t perfect”. His flower and vegetable gardens were a picture of perfection and required little maintenance. His collection of teaspoons from places he’d visited around the world was vast and ordered to the point of monotony.

All these interests were performed with great fussiness. Some would say they were performed with an energetic neurotic repetition.

What Alexander needed was a new hobby.

He thought he could take up photography, and so purchased an expensive digital camera. But he found that the camera’s automatic settings took better photos than his manually set snaps. He left the camera permanently set on automatic, and took hundreds of photographs of the same thing in an effort to take the perfect photo.

Ah! he thought. I shall take up blogging as a hobby instead. He began. First a heading: THE MAN IN THE MIRROR.


Alexander was a perfectionist. He’d...

When they found him hanging from a tree in his perfect garden, he was beyond recovery.


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