Good points! Amen to that!

In building two Pygmy kit s&g boats, I strove to do the best job I could, yet I know I fell short of perfection. On the first boat, I was nearly paralyzed when it came to gluing seams by the ominous line in the instruction book, "this is your last chance to make adjustments in the shape of the boat." I checked and checked and checked for three days before I finally took a deep breath and continued.

Since then, I've relaxed... and have been able to work according to the 'do the best I can, but don't worry about making it absolutely perfect' philosophy. I reasoned that I was building a boat-- designed to go into the water where it would get scratched in the process of being used -- not a coffee table or piece of living room wall art, which I would be loathe to put in a situation where it might get even the least banged up. I wanted a boat I could enjoy, not one that needed to be babied. (cared for, yes. babied, no).

So.... yes, there are some cosmetic blemishes (boat #2 was for an extended family member, so that one's not my concern anymore). If you look closely with a builder's eye, you can see them. With a builder's eye, you probably don't even need to look that close. From a distance, they aren't noticable, and they don't compromise the performance or the structural integrity of the boat. I get admiring compliments from others when I'm out & about with it... when I drove it out to Oregon & back a few weeks ago, the first thing people would say was, "what kind of wood is that?" followed by "*You* ***built*** that????" (apparantly I don't look like a boat builder )

And when I got the first scratch in the varnish (on the day I launched it), it wasn't traumatic for me... I knew that it wasn't perfect to start with, so I wasn't bothered... knowing that I'd built it to use, not just to look at. Knowing that it wasn't perfect to start with has 'freed' me psychologically to use it -- and to let others use it as well. (I'm more picky about letting somebody else drive my car!)

For me, it did take the process of actually building my first boat to come to grips with my perfectionist side. I'd never done anything like that before, so I was in new territory as far as skills and experience go. The boat came out fine. And it was an exercise in living by grace....as I discovered that there were few mistakes that I could make that couldn't be fixed with either a little more epoxy or by more sanding. .... but as a lot of you know already, I'm a *Lutheran* pastor -- so my theological motto is, "there but by the grace of God go I".... I'm not a Methodist-- who strive for perfection in all things.

End of 'sermon' (I've only got three more to write this week -- I have two funerals in addition to Sunday a.m.)

Julie Kanarr