Not partial to partial victory

"Because as every good activist Canadian knows, admitting partial victory constitutes defeat."

-- Chris Selley

You don' t have to be Canadian, or even an activist -- I knew back when I was still just an American schoolgirl that some people thought this way. That "That's not good enough!", if repeated too often, stops sounding like a stern but fair evaluation and starts sounding like a tiny kid's whining. Just as my father's voice, snapping out at me, sounds higher and more nasal every time I remember it.

But it's one of those sins I can easily get "caustic" about, as Fr. Vincent Hawkswell says, because I'm not much tempted to it myself.   

I'm more tempted to try to disguise defeat as partial victory. Which is good enough for me, right?

Or to try to tell myself and everyone else that I don't need victory, it's stupid and I wouldn't like it anyway. Like those grapes I can't reach . . .