My Life As A Triangle

OR

Here's a Powerpoint version

(It's a little faster)

Some of us are missing pieces. We don't know where we fit. We don't know who we are. We don't know what we want.

In the case of this story, we want a companion.
But what kind of companion? We don't know.

Remember: This is not a love story. It is a relationship story.

Here are some of our companion options:

Someone that we fit with but can't roll/progress: Temporary fun.

Someone who can roll/progress but we don't fit with them: Incompatible but amazing.

Someone who does not know a thing about fitting: Immature, set in their ways.

Someone who does not know a thing about anything: Idiot- run.

Someone who is delicate: Easily offended and high maintenance

Someone who puts us on a pedestal and then leaves us: Trophy companion- only for looks/recognition

Someone who has too many pieces missing: Not up to par, damaged

Someone who has too many pieces: Person slut

Someone who is one of the "hungry ones": desperate, weird

Someone who looks too closely: unalterable list of unattainable requirements

Someone who will roll by without noticing: Uninterested, unobservant

They are all entirely WRONG for us but almost always, we must experience what doesn't work before we discover what does.

Here are some ways we try to change ourselves:
Attempt to be more attractive: time is all spent trying to impress others
Make ourselves flashy which may scare away the shy ones: draw unnecessary attention to ourselves

The missing piece was changing itself for the wrong reasons. It wasn't doing it for itself. It was targeting what the companions it thought it wanted were looking for- not improving itself for personal reasons.

Here are different forms of relationships:

Ones in which we originally fit just right but then we began to grow which leaves us alone due to companions that wanted a missing piece that wouldn't increase: limiting our potential
Ones in which we don't fit correctly but we attempt to force ourselves to anyways: desperate need of companionship, not taking no as an option
No matter how much we force something that is wrong, it will never work. Time may change the circumstances or people in order that it will work someday but some sort of change- whether a mental perception by a party member or some kind of personal change by a member- must take place. Forcing together something that just broke without changing the situation or parts won't make any progress.

Here is the process of finding ourselves/defining who we are and improving that self:

flopping

bumping 

bouncing

rolling

until we have polished off our roughest edges
We have control of one thing- ourselves. We cannot change other people. We cannot change situations. We cannot change relationships. We can only change ourselves and ya know what? That's a huge potential.

And after all of this-
After the mismatched companions that we attempted to match ourselves with
After the failed attempts at changing ourselves in a way that was not to improve ourselves, but to improve the way people saw us
After failed attempts at relationships that were unhealthy or not meant to be
After flopping, bumping, bouncing, rolling along- perfecting ourselves
...
we reach an O
or in other words,
PERFECTION

THIS is where I have an issue. I don't like the ending to the book. I like the process that the missing piece went through. I like what it learned and how I am able to see where I have gone through every one of those scenarios. I like the focus on improving ourselves because that is the only thing that we truly have control over. BUT I don't like that the missing piece ends as an O, even though O represents perfection.

WHY don't I like this?

Well, how are the two O's supposed to form a companionship? The point of having a companion is that each of you complete what the other is not. You fill the voids in their lives and help them grow. You cannot be your own entirely separate person, already perfected to work in a companionship- you must be able to flop, bump, bounce, and roll together.

Silverstein, please write a sequel.