Nowadays

A woman - more beautiful than all other women. And almost perfect. Almost.

If it had not been for a tiny birthmark on her pale cheek.

A man - her husband. A scientist seeking perfection. He finds her flawless. Almost.

If it had not been for a tiny birthmark on her pale cheek.

This is the dilemma of Nathaniel Hawthorne's short story "The Birthmark" from 1843, a story that deals with the illusion and obsession with human perfection and our sometimes uncritical trust in science.

When Aylmer marries Georgiana, he barely notices the birthmark. But

"seeing her otherwise so perfect, he found this one defect grow more and more intolerable with every moment of their united lives. It was the fatal flaw of humanity which Nature, in one shape or another, stamps ineffaceably on all her productions, either to imply that they are temporary and finite, or that their perfection must be wrought by toil and pain."

For Aylmer it becomes an obsession to make happen what nature could not. He decides to remove the birthmark from his wife's cheek. A decision that - from the moment he makes it - carries heavy foreshadows. A decision which will have fatal consequences.

If I were to pick one human characteristic over all - one to describe the nature of humankind - I would pick our desire to approve things, our drive for excellence and perfection. In a modern world this sometimes creates a conflict between science and nature.

Therefore Hawthorne's short story, even though it is 160 years old, speaks to us all. It reminds us of something we need to be reminded of. Perfection is not a natural form; perfection is never found among the living. Perfection is nothing more than the illusion of a short moment.