I’m Confused!
Rivki D. Rosenwald Esq., LMFT, CLC, SDS
A- “Just put them in the corner!”
B– “And you think that’s a good way to deal with them?”
A– “Okay, just get them to the sides. Push them out of the center.”
B-“Really this is the right thing to do? “
A-“Ok, do this instead- put similar seeming ones together!”
B– “Isn’t that a bit a bit biased?”
A-“That’s the way it’s done!!”
B-“Really?! That doesn’t make it right though. It seems prejudiced and exclusive.”
A- “If you want to be successful that’s the way you need to do it”
B–“Well then can’t we do something else?”
A– “Sure – but, I’m not sure why you’re getting so upset. Haven’t you ever done a jigsaw puzzle before?!”
Aha -See -It’s the topic you’re discussing that counts!
Because mere words can be so misleading.
After all, puzzles do usually work best if corners and end pieces are done first. And then like pieces are put together. This behavior of relegating things to corners or isolating things or people can be wrong. But it works really well in jigsaw puzzles.
Honestly, one can learn a lot about life from a jigsaw puzzles. Especially, the multi piece ones.
For instance:
That sometimes we are only seeing half the picture.
Or
There’s more to a story than we recognize.
Or
Sometimes you’re just seeing things from the wrong angle.
Or
Trying to focus on the big picture …. really does help a lot in life.
Besides learning life philosophies from a mere puzzle, there are other benefits to doing them too. Though, even the benefits have downsides. Whoops –there goes another life lesson.
A puzzle can help a slow day go by. Though often slowly! Cause, it does kind of unfold in slow motion. So there the benefits and drawbacks of it.
It certainly gets people working together. Yet, it can become competitive with everyone focusing on their own section. Which leads to a kind of possessiveness so then if someone else finds your piece they better be smart enough to hand it over, rather than attempt to put it in because it has become your domain.
And certainly, if someone finds someone else’s finishing piece for a section, they better hand it over to the one working on it. That is, if they actually value their lives!
If you find all this puzzling you may not be a big puzzle person. But if you are, you kind of know exactly what I’m talking about.
Ultimately, as in all things, the idea is to come together and make ‘piece’ not war.
We are all working for a common end in a puzzle – and therefore we should work together with respect, and we shouldn’t forget that.
Just as we shouldn’t forget that in life in general!
Rivki Rosenwald is a Licensed Marriage & Family Therapistworking with both couples and individuals.
She is a Certified Relationship Counselor. She is a Co-Founder & Creator of an effective Parent Management of Adolescent Years Program. She can be contacted at 917-705-2004 or rivkirosenwald@gmail.com
