A Perfect Score..

There’s something exciting about the number 100. It has a heft to it; bells go off, well deserved cheers can be heard when something or someone reaches 100!

There are 100 pennies in a dollar.

There are 100 feet on a football field.

And the boiling point of water is 100 degrees C.

So many celebrations are had in recognition of 100; I particularly loved hailing 100 days of kindergarten, and the pride kids feel when they reach that milestone!

I will never forget being given my first $100 bill by my grandfather and thinking I had enough to support myself for life!

100 is so significant that experienced marketers suggest pricing things at $97 because people perceive $100 as so much more even though its a difference of only $3!

100 is a big deal.

Centennials are commemorated with honor and awe; in many ways we bow to the number 100. It connotes something important, something significant, something impressive.

I can recall being in the back of our 1955 Chevy with my siblings, none of us wearing seat belts, with my parents in the front seat, all of us singing at the top of our lungs “100 bottles of beer on the wall”, determined to complete the song no matter how annoying and boring it became because to do so was a thrill!

The importance of 100 stems from its symbolism for completeness and perfection. Getting 100 is a perfect score, something worth striving for.

One of my most vivd memories of my childhood was coming home from school and presenting my father with a test, a paper or a grade. For the most part, I received high marks that won his praise. Nonetheless, he never missed an opportunity to ask “what happened to the other point?” when shown a 99% on a test or grade. Although I knew he was teasing, it always broke my heart a little bit.

I spent most of my life chasing that extra point, aching for a perfect score.

But the asking about the missing point, which felt like a criticism for a fleeting second, was of course just a reminder that we can always do better; that learning more, striving, pushing ourselves is the way to feel good about ourselves, not because of the score, but as an example of our growth.

Today, my dad would have been 100 years old. And he almost made it.

Born on November 4, 1925, my dad lived through a great deal of history; as a child in the Great Depression, a soldier in WWII, a lawyer in the Kennedy Administration and an unwavering believer in decency, honesty and public service. It makes perfect sense that his birthday falls on Election Day, as it did so many years of his life, because nothing was more fundamentally important to him than honoring this country he loved and participating in government by voting!

In these last few years since his death, the world has darkened, optimism has become more difficult to access and our country has in many ways, become unrecognizable and yet, the only way I can hold on to a belief that we will overcome; that the hatred and intolerance and greed will be extinguished and intelligence and kindness will prevail is that he would have believed that. He has always been my example of what’s right in this world. He was steadfast and patient and he would never give up on this country. I believe in him as he believed in goodness.

On this day, I celebrate him and what would have been 100 years of extraordinariness.

In his honor, I vow to keep asking myself how I can be better, how I can grow, how I can expand and how I can improve.

Let us all continue to question things that are wrong, fight for justice and equality and commit to being good citizens. And let us never forget our heroes.