Once a circle missed a wedge. The circle
wanted to be whole, so it went around looking for its missing piece. But
because it was incomplete and therefore could roll only very slowly, it admired
the flowers along the way. It chatted with worms. It enjoyed the sunshine. It
found lots of different pieces, but none of them fit. So it left them all by
the side of the road and kept on searching. Then one day the circle found a
piece that fit perfectly. It was so happy. Now it could be whole, with nothing
missing. It incorporated the missing piece into itself and began to roll. Now
that it was a perfect circle, it could roll very fast, too fast to notice the
flowers or talking to the worms. When it realized how different the world
seemed when it rolled so quickly, it stopped, left its found piece by the side
of the road and rolled slowly away.
The lesson of the story, I suggested, was
that in some strange sense we are more whole when we are missing something. The
man who has everything is in some ways a poor man. He will never know what it
feels like to yearn, to hope, to nourish his soul with the dream of something
better.
There is a wholeness about the person who
has come to terms with his limitations, who has been brave enough to let go of
his unrealistic dreams and not feel like a failure for doing so. There is a
wholeness about the man or woman who has learned that he or she is strong
enough to go through a tragedy and survive, he or she can lose someone and
still feel like a complete person.
Life is not a trap set for us by God so that
he can condemn us for failing. Life is not a spelling bee, where no matter how
many words you'' ve gotten right, you'' re disqualified if you make one mistake.
Life is more like a baseball season, where even the best team loses one-third
of its games and even the worst team has its days of brilliance. Our goal is to
win more games than we lose.
When we accept that imperfection is part of
being human, and when we can continue rolling through life and appreciate it,
we will have achieved a wholeness that others can only aspire to. That, I
believe, is what God asks of us—not "Be perfect" , not "Don'' t
even make a mistake", but "Be whole" .
If we are brave enough to love, strong
enough to forgive, generous enough to rejoice in another'' s happiness, and wise
enough to know there is enough love to go around for us all, then we can
achieve a fulfillment that no other living creature will ever know.