Perfection

The game of perfection, a classic. I grew up playing the game, I too wanted my daughters to have the experience of playing the game of perfection. The anticipation of the POP is worth the trouble of racing the clock to get all the shapes in the correct spot.

Last night while trying to fall asleep I was, sadly, thinking about the game and came up with something I found rather fascinating and want to share that with you.

So, visualize with me...I want you to sit on the floor with your Perfection game. Good, now flip the switch to stop, turn the timer, push down the table top, gather all your pieces together, take a deep breath, and now, flip the switch. The sound of the timer is tick, tick, ticking, and your heart is beat, beat, beating. You are racing to try and fit the square in the crazy thing that should be a square, the star in the other star that has less starry points, and then there is always that one piece that just doesn't seem to have a home. You have 5 seconds and that board is going to POP any second and you will inevitably jump at the sound of all the pieces being thrown up in force from the board's spring being released. You have 2 pieces left and no matter which way you turn the piece it just doesn't seem to fit in either of the spaces left. And before you figure out the problem, POP, game over.

Am I the only one who has ever thought how much this game parallels life? Yesterday I played the game with my girls, and maybe that was what provoked my thinking. But while playing I noticed that neither of my daughters were able to complete the puzzle on their own in the allotted time. Even I just barely got the last piece in place just before the darn board popped. But when we all worked together we accomplished the goal, whether I was physically placing pieces or just pointing out their home. Sometimes in life we have a partner or a team (family) to help us to accomplish our goal of getting life's puzzle pieces into their proper places. And sometimes we are on our own, no one to back us up, no one to show us where to put the pieces. Sometimes we are playing the game with a few pieces at a time and other times it seems we have 2 games worth of pieces to put into one puzzle. The feelings of anxiety and fear of that inevitable POP, are far more extreme in the real life game of perfection than in the toy. I heard one of my daughters suggesting that they turn the switch off so they could put all the pieces in without it popping them all back out before they finished. Wouldn't it be great to have an on/off switch in real life. Yeah! Your boss gives you a major project to be done in the next 24 hours, FLIP! the switch is turned off and you get the job done before the POP! Your kids are all running around you going crazy, the kitchen seems to have exploded, laundry needs washing, FLIP the switch and everyone and everything stops except you and now you can get things in order before the POP! To have a on/off switch for whatever phase of life you are going through would be the coolest thing ever. If I had one wish I'd wish for an on/off switch.

But, apparently flipping the switch on the board game is not following rules, and very sadly and true, life does not have a switch to be flipped. But in real life, even during those times when you feel so utterly alone, you are never really alone. There is ALWAYS someone there beside you whispering "this piece goes here". That someone could be a quote from an inspiring book, a scripture, a family member, a trusted friend, a spiritual leader, and most definitely and always, our Father in Heaven.

I have found that in my life more often than not, I have 2 sets of pieces to fit into one game board. I realize I am the one who mixed the pieces all together and never sorted them out, but still I have 2 sets and I just can't seem to get any of the pieces where they need to go. Could it be because I am too much of a perfectionist and feel a need for every thing in my life to be such and if not then POP! all the pieces I had in their right places are thrown out and I have to start all over again? Oh how I have wished for that switch, that I might stop time and "cheat", if you will, by getting all my pieces on the board with no worries of the POP. That would of course be the easy way. What would I be learning if I played the game and never set the timer? What would I learn in life if I had no timer to put all my pieces in their proper place?

So, back to my original statement at the beginning, it too applies in life. The anticipation of the POP is worth all the trouble of racing the clock to get all the shapes in the correct spot.