Po is Missing a Piece

Last night, when everyone was in pajamas, the boys and I read Shel Silverstein's "The Missing Piece", a first reading for all three of us.

Even though my little guy, Po, can read pretty much anything to himself, I still find this immensely enjoyable, maybe more than when I "had to" read to him.  Anyway, we were going along, and enjoying silliness of the story, a circle looking for a piece to fill his empty wedge, and then the mood turned.  The circle has apparently found his perfect addition, a wedge that wants to be with him and fits perfectly.  But the circle decides that the he was mistaken - he really doesn't want "the one perfect piece."  So he lets it go, and moves on.  Po, my deep, tender soul, was upset, very upset.  His brother tried to tell him it is just a story, not to take it to heart.  But I know all three of us saw that the issue was deeper that this story of crudely drawn shapes.  "Po, if the circle really needs to put down the wedge, than it is not a good ending for the circle to keep that piece.  In real life, a being needs to look to create the circumstances that let it fulfill its purpose in God's world.  The ending of this story may be a confusing ending, or unsatisfying, but we don't know what would be on the next page.  " Then Moo and I came up with suggestions for continuations to the tale of the circle and the wedge, which I think helped Po a bit, but he just had to work through this.

One big irony for me was that I got this book out of the library because Po had been asking about "The Giving Tree."  I told him that I found that book too terribly depressing to read, but that I would take it out for him.  He just read it while sitting in the library, so we didn't even check it out.  So instead, I grabbed "The Missing Piece" to take home.  I remember being very deeply effected by books when I was little, although no titles are springing to mind.  I'm wondering whether to check out "The Missing Piece Meets the Big O."

I was just telling one of Po's teachers how I love the way he is always dancing,  I never want Po to stop dancing.  He is so full of happy , but I guess it is good he has a full range of feelings.  He is a deep, tender soul.