Imperfection + Perfection=Love

Professor Catherine Milton was the youngest person and female to win the Nobel prize in Physics and Chemistry. Teaching at the only College that was willing to take an 11-year-old Science major, she knew she had to give back. Her father would often say, “take with your right hand and give back with your left hand. That will keep the wind blowing.”

Her fifty years as a Professor of Science have ended. She was happy to be able to enjoy a life without Science.

In her years as a Professor at the University of Hawaii, she granted only a handful of interviews. Hence, on her final day, she invited reporters from all over the country representing the major media houses. She was ready to speak now.

The first reporter challenged, “Why science?”

“I was curious and asking lots of ‘WHY’ questions. Most folks around me didn’t have an answer, but one of them suggested, ‘why don’t you ask science,’ and I did.”

Another reporter asks, “You got married the day after finding out that you won the Noble Prize. It’s as if you were waiting for that moment. I mean, which Nobel prize winner marries a mechanic?”

She smiles, staring at someone in the back. More than sixty pairs of eyes imitated her. And a voice said, “It was a promise she made to me,” Miles Milton, her husband, said, walking to join her on stage. She met him halfway, and he kisses her cheek, and they walked to two comfortable chairs and sat down.

The third reporter wanted to know, “How did you two meet? I mean, you are way up there, and he is. . . . I mean . . . you are so different.”

They glance at each other, and she nods, then picks up the cordless microphone on the small table to her right and shares, “When I got accepted in College at 11 years old, my father believes that my brain alone wasn’t enough to aid in my survival. He thought I should learn something outside of a book that requires the use of my hands. I wasn’t interested in simple or easy things. My brains need lots of challenges. My mother’s best friend’s husband was a mechanic. When all of the other avenues to domesticate me closed, I end up in his father’s mechanic shop. He was as good with his hands as I was smart. His father taught him that you shouldn’t drive a car if you know nothing about it.

For the next five years, he taught me everything I should know about cars, and he refuses to learn anything about Science.”

The audience laughed.

The same reporter continues, “So that means you are a mechanic too?”

“Oh yes,” she quickly assures. “I can change my oil, replace a flat tire, battery, and windshield wipers. I am able to hotwire a car, jimmy the locks, reprogram, and bypass any computer system in your car. I can remove your engine and put it back in. I can also diagnose your car just by the sounds of the engine. I could be a car thief’s best friend too.”

The crowd ruptured in laughter.

“And your husband taught you all of that?”

“That’s just some of the things he taught me. I fell in love with his heart, and he fell in love with my curiosity of our world.”

A fourth reporter comments, “You have been married for more than fifty years. Both of you are like sugar and salt, yet you had the perfect marriage.”

“There is no perfect man, woman, life or marriage. When we allow others to be themselves without fear, we get the best and most genuine part of them. I was never a liability to him, and he was smart enough to know that he must keep his assets.”

Waves of laughter ripples throughout the audience.

The fifth reporter says, “According to sources, you have donated two-thirds of your salary back to the university because you don’t want to compete with your husband financially.”

“Never take away a man’s ego from him,” she said, smiling at her husband, Love flowing from her heart to her eyes. “Our marriage wasn’t a competition, but ego can destroy a relationship.”

“How did you know he was the right one?” A sixth reporter asks.

Nodding, she said, “I didn’t. None of us can. Relationships are like scientific researches. Both take love, dedication, and lots of hard work. Love and Science have a lot of unanswered questions. More humans are looking for love’s questions and answers than anything else in our world. In both science and love, something new is learned every day. A few of us managed to find the answer/cure. Both demand a lot of our time.”

“Would you say you found the solution?”

With a chuckle, Catherine said, “I am still learning.”

“After more than fifty years of marriage?”

Catherine stared at her for a second, then asks, “Are you married?”

“Yes,” she answers, her face lined with confusion.

“Did you experience any problems while planning your wedding?”

“Yes,” she answered, still wearing perplexity on her face. “I had problems finding my size in the dress that I loved.”

“Could you have bought it and have it altered?”

“No, it was too small.”

“Could you have lost weight to fit in it?”

The reporter stared at her in reflection, then said, “that was twenty years ago. I wanted my wedding to be perfect.”

“Was the marriage perfect?”

She nodded, then said with regret, “No, it lasted only five years.”

“I am so sorry,” Catherine apologize. Then turned to her left and asked, “Sir, in the red hat. Are you married?”

He smiled at the female beside him and quickly said, “Yes, mam.”

“Did you have problems at all?”

“Oh yes,” he replied, standing up. “The shoes I wanted to wear I couldn’t find my size. I wore size nine, and they only had ten and a half.”

“And.”

“I bought it.”

“You didn’t want a perfect wedding?” she asks.

“The girl I fell in love with had a heart packed with kindness and understanding. What I wore didn’t matter to her?”

“How long ago was that?”

The female sitting beside him stood up and said, “twenty years ago. And I had problems finding a dress and shoes. So we both wore something we were comfortable in. And I, too, fell in love with a guy with a beautiful heart.”

“Both of you didn’t want a perfect wedding?”

They held hands, stared into each other eyes, then the female said, “We loved and admired each other. We knew we were imperfect beings, but we could claim perfection with our love for each other. ”

“When we look for perfection, we will find problems and failure. And like she said, a girl wants a guy with a beautiful heart, vice versa. I didn’t know if he was the one. What I did know was that he had a gorgeous heart. Plus, in the fifty years that our love has continued to grow, it says a lot. But not perfection.”

The sixth reporter said, “What has science taught you about life?”

Catherine slid into deep thought for a while, then revealed, “There is no perfection in our world, but a heart filled with love has the power to create anything, including their own idea of perfection that they want for themselves.”

“So you are saying that perfection is love.”

Smiling, she said, “And love can be perfection.”

When love is in the middle, perfection has no place to stay because love in itself can be both perfect and imperfect. They each take turns.