My son was chatting away to me as I went about some tasks and caught only a bit of what he said when he said “..in a round world..” and suddenly I perked up. I asked him about it and he explained, I realized that he was talking about a video game with a race called ‘Around the world’. “Oh” I said, a little deflated. I told him that I had been excited when I thought he said “in a round world” because I had suddenly imagined this cool story about a ‘round world’. You know, where there are all of these round people, rolling everywhere. My son caught on immediately and we both giggled about this concept so we continued with it in a sort of story telling game that we made up years before when shopping became tedious for him. I began to tell him a story – making it up as I went – and we agreed that we would share the story telling. So I would begin and he would tell the next bit and so on until we came up with a spectacular ending.

So, this story began with a round world, with round, rolling people whose babies literally bounced! But of course, there was one person who didn’t fit in.. Fred.. he was square. He had lots of round friends who would help to ‘roll’ him to parties and events and they accepted him but outside of that circle of friends, there wasn’t as much acceptance of him and his unique shape. My son took over the story and told about Fred’s childhood and how he was teased by some of the round students in school. And that now, as an adult, he came across these same people who he used to think of as ‘bullies’ making fun of a.. he couldn’t believe it.. there stood a triangular female! They were making jokes like “I’ll bet you don’t get around much!” In comes Fred who was taking all of this in and interrupts by patting one of his old classmates on the back “I remember you..” They all turned around, surprised to see their old school mate. Fred was looking, surprised as well at this wonderfully unique female. Fred said directly to her, “They wouldn’t understand someone as unique as you.” As those who were gathered around her parted, Tina, the triangular woman came forward to join Fred. They walked and talked and got to know one another better.

Of course they married! And then set about making a trip ‘around the world’ looking for other uniquely shaped people to hear their stories and combine their skills to help one another and to demonstrate their own unique abilities. As time went on, more and more round people began to mingle more and more with people of different shapes and the world was richer for it. Eventually, Fred and Tina had their first child who was shaped like a soccer ball (technically called a truncated icosahedron). This girl had many facets and could roll and bounce! She also had many magical gifts and the word soon got out about these gifts and many people came to see her and to experience these gifts for themselves. In her presence, people felt like they began to understand themselves better and felt an overwhelming sense of love. Soon they understood that this love was really who they were.

Then they had a boy who was a decahedron…. He was the fastest creature in this world and spread joy throughout the world. This was a rare gift that spread even faster once it caught on. It had been in short supply in this world so everyone welcomed this refreshing presence that was changing the world for the better.

Eventually, the people in this round world realized how much they were missing before they began to fully appreciate all of the different shapes and possibilities of their world. This was the greatest gift of all. Now, adults and children grew in a different way, they discovered how they all fit in as they appreciated their differences and how those differences created a sort of beautiful eco system within their community. All of this growing helped change this round world for the better and it still is today.