Good Enough

I grew up with films of the 30s through 50s: what we now consider classic movies. At some hours there wasn’t much else on TV. Until the end of the 1960s TV stations, even though there were just a handful in each market, were scrounging for content. Some stations (even major ones) simply went off the air at night because they had nothing to broadcast. Others, however, during non-prime hours of the day and late at night played classic films, the rights to which they had acquired for a song. Nowadays a youngster always can find something more suitable to a kid’s taste any time of the day or night on one of 200 other TV channels – or online. Back then we settled. 

These old films varied a lot in quality. The bulk of them were B-movies in every sense, but I wasn’t a particularly precocious youngster and so wasn’t a very good judge. It is interesting to revisit them now with an adult eye. Even some of the bad ones still have a nostalgia value for me because I remember having watched them at age 10 when I should have been in bed. I re-encountered one such film on TCM the other day that I barely remembered from youth. Lured (1947) is a noir mystery in which a pre-I Love Lucy Lucille Ball plays a taxi dancer who co-operates with Scotland Yard by acting as bait to catch a serial killer. In truth, the movie is contrived and not very good, but it isn’t altogether bad either. It is good enough to enjoy for 102 minutes. 

As I’ve grown older I’ve become a fan of the good enough. To be sure, I appreciate excellence as much as anyone, but that is a rare commodity and not always worth the cost. Voltaire warned that “the best is the enemy of the good.” He meant, of course, that demanding nothing but the best (including from oneself) may mean you don’t get or achieve anything at all. It usually means that. We are often discouraged from writing or painting or building something by our own concern that we won’t be great. The truth is, we’re probably right – especially by contemporary standards. Kurt Vonnegut once remarked that in a Neolithic village the totem carver was Michelangelo as far as the villagers were concerned. The rock painter was Picasso and the campfire singer was Elvis. In the modern global village we are up against world class performers, not just a hundred locals. It accordingly is easy to become discouraged by comparing ourselves to them. Excelling on a global scale is tough. 

Even by Roman times this was an issue. Vergil was so unhappy with the Aeneid that on his deathbed he directed the manuscript be destroyed. Fortunately, his dying wish was ignored and this classic of Western literature survives. In 1908 Monet destroyed a number of his paintings: “I know that if they are exhibited, they’ll be a great success, but I couldn’t be more indifferent to it since I know they are bad.” So, sometimes we are wrong about our own work. However, even if our judgment is right (as is more likely), it’s worth giving whatever we like to do a go anyway. Maybe it won’t be great. It probably won’t be. Yet it might be good enough to bring pleasure to oneself and perhaps to others. Once again, there is something to be said for that. Just yesterday I did a good enough job of mowing the lawn. The result won’t win any landscaping awards but it doesn’t look bad either – and it was cheaper than hiring professional lawn care. 

I’ve had occasion to contemplate what a life filled with good enough can be like: a good enough job, a good enough car, good enough home, and, yes, good enough relationships. It sounds like a pretty happy one to me. I’ve experienced stretches of life filled with extreme bests and extreme worsts, and I’d be willing to trade. 

Maybe I’ll check what is playing this evening on TCM. If it’s something like The Philadelphia Story (definitely a best), that’s wonderful. But if it’s something good enough like The Falcon’s Alibi, that is OK, too.

Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers – Good Enough