Wisdom from a Procrastinated Puzzle

WORKING WITH PEOPLE who have disabilities is often rewarding  but always interesting, particularly if the people are children, and the disabilities are mental. It becomes even more rewarding and fascinating if the child is intelligent, and creative.

My question is: when you walk into a toy store and buy a jig saw puzzle, what is the maximum number of pieces in a puzzle. Well, my kid got one with a thousand pieces, and if they come with more pieces than that, they should be illegal. "incitement to frustration."

The kid i work with loves dos, and the picture of the box shows several frisky puppies, in various playful activities, next to a rocking chair and a couple other pieces of furniture. Fairly complicated scene, many colors and shapes, and a thousand damned pieces.

Well, he started work on it a year ago, christmas twenty eleven, on the kitehcn table, which immediately put the table off limits until puzzler completion. Family dinners in front of the living room television. The price we pay.  Kid got off to a fast start, with whole sectons of border falling into place, and some interior sections shaping up as well.

Then, as it got more complicated, the progress slowed, then stopped altogether. Meanwhile, the table was still unavailable for anything else, but, as the days turned into weeks, then months, family members gradually fell into the habit of laying things, like coats and books, on the table for short periods of time.

Nearly a year later, as christmas approached again, the table was swamped with houseold articles,with the partially completed puzzle, and several hundred loose pieces, beneath. I figured it had reached its final, permanent state, and that the puzzle completion was a pipe dream.

Then, suddenly, the kid regains interest, clears off everything from the table which doesn't look like it fits into a jig saw puzzle, and resumes work. Never thought I'd see the day, not in a thousand years.

This time all the pieces came together, and the legendary project was completed; except for three interior pieces, which were missing. Part of a puppie's butt, part of another puppie's paw, and a section of sky, nowhere to be found.

Kid was angry, and disappointed. He quickly understood that all three pieces pieces wee long gone, probably inadvertantly dragged off with somebody's hat or gloves, or onto the floor, and into the trash. Who know,but, after all these months, gone.

He wanted to go back over to the store, and buy a copy of the same puzzle, find the three pieces, and finish his grand project properly. I oointed out that doing this would be tantamount to actually doing the whole puzzle over from scratch, merely seeking three certain pieces from a jumble of thousands.

The way it stand now, he's not certain if he wants to do this, because he fully understands that what he is really suggesting is doing the whole infernal project over. But he hates looking at his unfinished masterpiece, and seem determined. We'll go back to the store. Maybe he'll learn something valuable.  I know I already have.