The missing piece

[snowblind]

While on a retreat this weekend this came up and struck me hard...
The Missing Piece by Shel Silverstein
The story centers on a circular animal-like creature that is missing
a wedge-shaped piece of itself. It doesn’t like this, and sets out to
find its missing piece, singing:

Oh, I'm lookin' for my missin' piece

I'm lookin' for my missin' piece

Hi-dee-ho, here I go

lookin' for my missin' piece

It starts out on a grand adventure searching for the perfect piece
to complete itself, while singing and enjoying the scenery. But after
the circle finally finds the exact-sized wedge that fits it, it begins
to realize that it can no longer do the things it used to enjoy doing,
like singing or rolling slowly enough to enjoy the company of a worm or
butterfly. It decides that it was happier when searching for the
missing piece than actually having it. So it gently puts the piece
down, and continues happily searching. (Wikipedia)

[SelfHealedMadman]

There was a child set forth every day,
And the first object he looked upon, that object he became,
And that object became part of him for the day or
a certain part of the day,
Or for many years or stretching cycles of years. 
     -Walt Whitman

[Wei Shan Yang]

Let's say, after he put the piece down, another creature came along and ate it...then what?

[The Milk Man]

Forgetting how much more MAGICAL is being complete, ADDICTED to the ROUTINE of seeking, the dumb bastard starts over.


I guess some people LIKE being broken, stupid and wasting their lives.


Anything but seeking the guidance of people who actually knows ****.


Boy, what a fucking tragedy. The price of stupid pride.

[snowblind]

It means whatever you choose it to mean...meanings communicated tell much...

[Wei Shan Yang]

In the case of this story, its very straight forward. The seeker identifying with being incomplete but is happy with the joy of seeking this sense of completion.



In real life, I don't think anyone is happy identifying with being incomplete. They may be restless, driven, high strung, but not happy in the contented sense. Their happiness comes from "what ifs" and if their options are taken away, they can become quite miserable about it. The story is just an idealistic view, a perfect circumstance situation.



Also, and this relates to my first post here, if the creature was able to "do things" without his wedge, in what way was he ever incomplete?

[snowblind]

Wei Shan Yang wrote:In the case of this story, its very straight forward. The seeker identifying with being incomplete but is happy with the joy of seeking this sense of completion.



In real life, I don't think anyone is happy identifying with being incomplete. They may be restless, driven, high strung, but not happy in the contented sense. Their happiness comes from "what ifs" and if their options are taken away, they can become quite miserable about it. The story is just an idealistic view, a perfect circumstance situation.



Also, and this relates to my first post here, if the creature was able to "do things" without his wedge, in what way was he ever incomplete?We are never incomplete...IMHO that is the point.

[Wei Shan Yang]

The story is pretty straight forward I think, seems like a good example to explain seeking, but not the best to explain completion. But would welcome your opinion (further explanation) on this. You say this struck you hard at the retreat, in what way?

[snowblind]

Wei Shan Yang wrote:The story is pretty straight forward I think, seems like a good example to explain seeking, but not the best to explain completion. But would welcome your opinion (further explanation) on this. You say this struck you hard at the retreat, in what way?
Explain completion...hmmm I dont believe that I have ever really experienced completion as much as transitioning.  One thing flowing into another.  I can only explain with my experience of why it struck me so hard. 
I am about to finish college.  I came to college to answer some very powerful questions (powerful to me only).  While here I found some of the things I was looking for.  These things were not the expected answers...pretty boring really, as I was expecting some Caravaggio type chiarascuro moment when I would receive my download of enlightenment and carry with me my glowing halo of supreme ultimate (and arcane) knowledge.  It was more like..."oh, well then, thats boring."  So when I read this story I realized that I had I decided to put down (not so much put down, as set aside knowing where the piece is)  the pieces that I had found...and start again.  Not on the same quest...a new one.  I could not start the same one as I have acquired new information that has become integrated with the old information...cant unlearn what you have learned can you?  It resonated with my life experience at this moment...I guess thats the short answer.  Thank you for asking.
The sacred hoop spirals round and round never touching again where it was, but still coming round in larger hoops supported by the hoops that had gone before, finally encompassing the universe.
[img]file:///C:/DOCUME%7E1/UNCUser/LOCALS%7E1/Temp/moz-screenshot.png[/img]

[Wei Shan Yang]

Sure, and thanks for sharing. Our lives always so much more than these brief forum exchanges, aren't they? : )



Completeness...I've actually seen you talk about it before:



snowblind wrote: again...we are perfect where we are in any given moment, we only need to perceive that in order to become unconcerned.
But I know what you mean here (at least I think I do) when you said:
So when I read this story I
realized that I had I decided to put down (not so much put down, as set
aside knowing where the piece is)  the pieces that I had found...and
start again.
My interp: from a sense of completion, we can seek in a way that is joyful knowing that the finding is never really the matter at hand and it does not ever define us in any way. That's why I asked "what if the piece was eaten?", becasue I visualized a scenario where the creature would be happy anyway if he had cultivated the right view, which was knowing he was already complete (which you said too in post 6). And I don't think that the story illustrated it specifically. It was rather something that can be realized in addition to the story, or as a result of.

[Guest]