The Jigsaw
One of my favourite analogies that attempts to describe life, is a jigsaw puzzle.
This view of life was explained to a 7-year-old by his dad. The 7-year-old was Daniel Sloss who is now one of the best comedians in the world.
The best analogy I’ve ever heard on life wasn’t from some academic, a psychologist, a spiritualist, or a physician. It came from a Scottish comedian’s dad. And I think that’s fantastic.
It is very difficult to accurately describe whatever we’ve got going on here. And different viewpoints will resonate differently with each of us. But this is one of the best for me. Let me explain why.
The Jigsaw Way of Life
We all have our individual jigsaws. An image that collects together to represent our entire lives. We might have major sections to this jigsaw. Friends. Family. Career. Hobbies and interests. Partner. Religion. Anything.
That’s one reason I love this analogy. It can fit side by side with any belief. Whether you’re religious or not. Whether you believe the world is round or flat (I’ll give a hint, it’s round, but we don’t judge here). Even if you think governments are lizards in costumes, you can still structure your life as a jigsaw puzzle. And the central piece is your key piece.
You base your life around this piece. If you discover it. Some people can search for their entire lives and not find the thing they are looking for. The central piece that signals the beginning of the image your completed jigsaw will represent. This is a key message to approach discomfort and try new things. We discover things we truly love by trying new things and confronting discomfort. From here, we reflect on our experiences to discover if the discomfort originated from biases and knowledge gaps in our brains. The central piece to your jigsaw could be the thing that brings you the most discomfort. It could all be in your brain.
But I’m not alone, right?
Correct. As you construct your jigsaw, so do 8 billion other people. And the 117 billion people who have lived and died built their jigsaws. Sometimes our jigsaws interact. They don’t overlap. You, and only you, are in control of your own life. Your own jigsaw. But you and others can have the same piece.
The Central Piece
As Daniel Sloss states in his Netflix show, the last thing you want to do in a jigsaw when you’re missing a piece is to attempt to smash a piece into it that clearly doesn’t fit. Especially your central piece. The meaning of your life. The reason to get out of bed every morning. The piece that represents your purpose.
The key point of this section of the show is to demonstrate how we can force things into our jigsaw that don’t fit. Then the image will be blurry in one area. This can represent our problems, our blind spots in life, or somewhere we don’t control our own lives and we let others make our decisions for us. If we don’t say no and we hesitate, other people will say yes to us. Then we lose what little control we really have. We especially can’t let others take control of our jigsaws and start ramming their own pieces into ours.
The Best Way To Build A Jigsaw Is To Start
Live a life true to yourself. Society pressures us down certain paths. Our loved ones can also pressure us. Quite often not purposefully. We also live in a world of social media where the entire world can see what wonderful life others are leading (sarcasm alert). They are showing off their jigsaw on social media. But we all know the best way to do a jigsaw. On a quiet Sunday, when the weather outside is awful, and most importantly, you’re alone.
So take on the opinions of others. We have to collaborate with others to get past our blind spots, and our own ego trying to convince us we know best. Often, we don’t know best. There are others who have experienced something before or have reflected on historical patterns, and they’ve had that piece in their jigsaw for a long time.
Learn from them. Sometimes jigsaw pieces can interact as we share things with others. But they never overlap. Start working on your own jigsaw. Find your purpose. And watch Daniel Sloss’ Netflix shows. Truly one of the best comics today.
Thanks for reading. I told you I’d feel the urge to write something. I felt such an urge, I started an entirely new newsletter. Taking time to rest, with no obligations can often bring about creativity that you wouldn’t otherwise think up during busy times, sticking to your schedule.
I frequently get the urge to write about life, very generally. And to present different viewpoints on how to look at it. This isn’t related to my Geopolitics writing. Also, it often could be a load of shit. Hence here is my new newsletter, Something Greater. I like the idea of working towards one purpose. A purpose that should be set so high that it seems completely unachievable. Something to commit our entire lives to. Towards our jigsaw’s central piece. Essentially, we’re all searching for something greater.
PS: The inspiration for the name. Music is the best.