The Puzzle Piece

How do you tell people you are bi-polar (manic-depressive)?  For weeks I struggled for an explanation to give my son.  Each time we discussed it, I was left with an uneasy feeling.  I felt sure that he did too.

A few weeks later we were at a franchise fair.  At one of the vendors tables, there was a cube puzzle.  It was taken apart, the pieces scattered. My son, Michael, tried to solve the cube and just as quickly as he picked the pieces up, he threw them back on the table.  I picked up the pieces and proceded to put the puzzle together.  One piece didn't seem right, so I removed it and used another one.  It might have taken me all of 30 seconds to assemble the cube.  

"That must be for very young children." Michael said.

"No, actually it is not.  It is for all ages." The representative had come up to watch me do the puzzle. This booth was for an educational service for students.  He continued "We have had people spend hours trying to complete these cubes."  He then put the cube I had made in a box and presented it to me. "Anyone who solves a cube gets one."  This inspired Michael to complete the next cube puzzle, which he did very quickly.  He got his cube as well.

Michael's stepdad, Anthony, showed up in a short time and said that the reason Michael solved it so quickly on the second try was because he watched how I did it.  The respresentative said that there were several different ways to solve the cube, so that probably wasn't the case.

Over the next few days, we would play with the cubes from time to time.   The cubes pieces were numbered from one to seven and we would try  get different number to show on the top of the finished cube.  Once we traded cubes to see if Michael would solve his more quickly with mine.  Michael has a great mind.  "Mom, you have two number fives in your puzzle!".  Sure enough, I did.  I looked at his cube and compared his number 5 and 6 with my duplicate number 5s.    The six and five pieces were different from each other.  My puzzle was different from my son's.

I solved my puzzle many times and in several different ways.  We have yet to count the different ways we have solved the cubes.

The point I have made to my son is this:  I can still be successful in what I do, even if there is a part of me that isn't configured like most everyone else.