It’s ok to stare.

Research by Alan Slater shows that we all come into the world prewired to be attracted to perfection.

An Olympic sprinter, an opera tenor, a poet, a tango, the look of real hope on the face of someone receiving a genuine grace—all of these things can choke me up. I even got misty-eyed the first time I saw the obelisk containing Hammurabi's Code. These are things so pure, so beautiful, so powerful, so beyond the range of normal human bumbling around, that they can make us see the fingerprints of God or at least begin to believe that we are capable of something transcendent. These experiences make something inside me come alive, both physically and mentally.

When we see perfection in action, our brains instinctively focus our attention and start making plans for how we, too, can achieve that perfection. On some level, we all really do want to “be like Mike.”