Keith Barlow shares how people are like puzzle pieces that connect to each other.
Jigsaw puzzle pieces, if you consider them, are similar to us as individuals. A jigsaw puzzle piece is a unique collection of tabs, blanks and an imprinted image. And we are unique assemblies of our values, experiences and goals. In this way, we are flesh and blood jigsaw puzzle pieces.
As a puzzle piece, we interlock with other puzzle pieces who complement us in our various communities, be they marathon training teams, backpacking crews or writing meet-up groups. And those distinct puzzle pieces with whom we surround ourselves interlock with all of the other puzzle pieces around them.
Yet, what happens when a person goes absent from the community of the jigsaw puzzle? The piece disappears from the puzzle table. Maybe this person moved to a new city or merely drifted away. My friend Jaye recently went absent from the puzzle table, but despite the absence of her piece, her shape remains reflected in the negative space marked out by the surrounding pieces of family and friends.
Everyone attending my father’s memorial service reflected the tabs and blanks of his puzzle piece and he was, then, that one missing piece. Though each of us touched only our unique segment of his piece, his complete shape was outlined out by family, friends, neighbors, church members and railroaders. The well-worn parental admonition that “You are the company you keep,” also implies that the company you keep are you. When he was alive, we each knew only a part of my dad. And brought together by his death, we revealed his complete piece. In that way, Dad was telling us, “I am here with you; I still exist,” because we were him.