"Maybe We're The Pieces"

Tikkun Olam.
Tikkun Olam.

Translated, it means "repairing the world" or "perfecting the world" and it's a theory in Judaism. I came across this phrase while I was reading "Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist", when Norah was explaining the idea to Nick. Basically, the concept of tikkun olam is that the world is broken down into pieces. Pieces, meaning chaos and disorder. And it's each person's job to find these pieces and glue them back together. Or in other words, it's our job to repair this fragmented world.

That idea, the idea that the world is broken, totally appeals to me. And I agree with Norah when she felt that the older people get, the more the world breaks and the more it wouldn't make sense to them. I guess that's the challenge we all have to face as we last longer in this life. We have to overcome this confusion, this disarray, in order for us to 'heal' the world. It's just sad that we're all caught up in our own mess to even look for these pieces.

Although, what hit me most about Nick and Norah's conversation about tikkun olam, was when Nick said this,

"Maybe that's it. With what you're talking about before. The world being broken. Maybe it isn't that we're supposed to find the pieces and put them back together."

"Maybe we're the pieces."

And then the chapter ends with Nick's,

"Maybe, what we're supposed to do is come together. That's how we stop the breaking."

...I guess it's really something to think about, huh?



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