The children's book “The missing piece” or the original “The missing piece” went viral when the Brazilian journalist and vlogger Jout Jout in one of her videos on Youtube (link below) tells the story of a Circular Being that is not complete and travels the world in search of the missing part, he believes he will only be happy when he is complete. Although the book has the format that seems to be for children, it brings a message that is resonant with the adult public, since they understand the depth of what they are reading.
The book is brilliant when it talks about our eternal dissatisfaction with filling the gaps anyway, and not allowing ourselves to live with our limitations, voids and lacks. Incompleteness is what moves human beings to seek something, what motivates us is not final happiness but the search for it, that daily aspiration. We are always looking for something and that makes life interesting. Spaces/lacks are generated from time to time so that we can fill them and so that over time new gaps arise and we can fill them, life is balancing itself in the lack and in completeness. We live in a time when there is the stimulus for nothing to be lacking.
We live in a time when we “have” to produce all the time, have a boyfriend/girlfriend, get married, have children, have a master’s degree, doctorate, study abroad, have a good house, car, occupy ourselves, travel, take medication when we are sad and be happy. Happy all the time, having an unshakable life and disposability of everything that doesn't go well for us. As if happiness were in the different objects of the world, beyond ourselves and could be experienced at all times.
And in this whirlwind where there is no time to appreciate the small [and big!] things in life, there is no idleness, there is no dwelling on our most intimate feelings, looking at the choices we make in life and even who we are , we run out of time for our 'SELF'. The main character, in his momentary completeness, sees life passing by very quickly... without being able to smell the aroma of a flower, without contact with the butterfly that he liked so much and couldn't even sing, giving up that state to return to be missing. Ah… and how lack changes things, no!? Have you ever stopped to think about it?
Are we not living compulsorily and with the illusion of completeness? Aren't we scrolling too fast on the stuff of life? Are we not focusing on timeless instances that we cannot control, such as the past and the future, and failing to live in the present with its faults and searches?
'Social objects' encourage us to move away from our individual truth and, when a video like this appears, we are forced to look inside. Looking at our lack, the one which there is no part to complete. Absences and pauses are as important as the completions and resolutions of any situation. Everything is a cycle. Life requires intervals, no tree bears fruit all year round, no plant blooms in all seasons. Give yourself time, take breaks, allow yourself to be lacking.
I leave here the link so you can watch the video of Jout Jout. (so worth it) and allow yourself to cry too.
The video is in Portuguese with English Subtittles:
Enjoy!