Missing
Pieces
“Sometimes
the hardest pieces of the puzzle to assemble, are the ones missing
from the box.”
Dixie
Waters
There
are still forty or so puzzles and board games in my basement; ones
that are not listed on eBay because they have missing pieces. I
honestly struggle with this very minor, unimportant in the great
scheme of things, problem. Do I throw them away? Do I assemble lots
of replacement parts? Do I put all the marbles, or all the plastic
Monopoly houses, into canning jars and sell them as some sort of
bizarre ornamentation? Do I throw the whole lot into the recycle bin
and hope they are carried away to become a problem for someone else?
In the midst of missing pieces, I discover the equally missing
“decision making” gene in my own pool.
I
blame my Great Depression era parents for this flaw. They threw away
nothing because it might come in handy at some mythical point in
time. Or it might be used for some purpose other than what was
intended. And I remember some of the folks I met in Costa Rica, who
threw nothing away because they had nothing in the first place. I
wrestle with our “throw-away” culture that replaces things before
they're worn out simply because they go out of fashion, or they don't
match the new paint color, or it's just time for an upgrade.
I'm
actually glad, though I wasn't at the time, that my parents
encouraged me to see the value in cleaning my plate, because they
themselves had experienced hunger. I learned from them that I have a
responsibility to conserve, re-cycle, re-use, re-purpose. They
taught, not by adopting slogans, but by the way they lived. Their
frugality was of necessity, but I think it was also by choice. They
weren't people given to waste. They appreciated what they thought of
as God's gifts to them.
All
this angst over missing game parts is both silly and exhausting. I am happy, however, that while I'm missing the “decision
making” gene, I may have inherited the “living consciously” gene. Does
anyone want a board game with a few missing pieces? How about a
puzzle?
In
the Spirit,
Jane
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