Shel Silverstein and the Missing Piece Meets the Big O

It also has nothing to do with the giant robot noir anime!

I found it depressing actually. Social connections are a large part of life. So as an introvert who has a hard time finding those connections being told I should be happy is actually wrong: sure I can be okay, but social connections are something missing. Together people really are larger than the sum of their parts.

Love this - often times if I get off work later than normal and get home after dark, I’ll walk around the neighborhood - live in a small town so you can see the stars and smell the trees; I almost always feel like a little kid again - like that feeling of being alive and outside is more true than all the work you do typing at a computer all day.

Your story reminded me of that feeling - so cheers!

The Missing Piece is such a great metaphor for the dynamics of relationships that it continues to predict reality beyond even what Silverstein imagined.

You've got the wedge and incomplete circle, that when fitting together just right, roll along perfectly. That becomes unstable once one piece changes.

Then you've got the end-state: two self-sufficient circles which roll in parallel, just because they choose to.

The first two stay together via a strong need, like a dipole-dipole bond between molecules of a solid. The second stay together with a much weaker, Van der Waals force, and are easily separated.

It very aptly predicts the rise in divorces in the West once women had more opportunities to be self-sufficient. I won't address if that's good or bad; I just want to compliment Silverstein on a very successful metaphor.

Is this something famous more people should know about? If you were going to pick one episode to get someone hooked or not - which one?