You are perfect, Avery. Just like you are, flaws and everything.

Perfection, in a Christian sense, means becoming mature enough to give ourselves to others.

There is still that singular perfection, and it's perfect in part because it seemed, at the time, so clearly to promise more.

As perfect and as great as our system is, there are still flaws. And this is why it's important that people stand up and find adequate means to compensate those who have been locked up wrongfully.

The human beings at the helm of the new nation [USA], whatever their limitations [slave owners, anti-democracy], were truly revolutionary. The theory of liberty born in that era, the seed of the idea, was perfect.

More important, the idea itself carried within it the moral power to correct the contradictions in its execution that were obvious from the very birth of the new nation.

... one flaw throws the loveliness of [everything else] into focus. I remember reading that Shakers deliberately introduced a mistake into the things they made, to show that man shouldn't aspire to the perfection of God. Flawed can be more perfect than perfection.