my favorite jigsaw puzzle ever!
I confess to a bit of a regimen. I keep a jigsaw going most of the time. I’ll work at it 2–3 times a day. I think everyone works jigsaws the same: the edges, the predominant stuff, and finally the laborious sky or mountain or landscape. That’s why I love the puzzle in the photo—ah, the busy-ness! (Plus, it’s candy—can’t wait to show the granddaughters). I do the New York Times Sunday crossword, but I give myself all week to do it. For a diversion, I’ll do the crossword on the last page of The Week (our favorite news source)—much easier.
I have tried to figure out the attraction of jigsaws—it seems so mindless. There is just something gratifying about finding the right piece to go into the right space. I saw a movie called Sleuth—a guy (Laurence Olivier) has a puzzle on his cocktail table of a snowstorm (all white). He and this other guy (Michael Caine) get into a brawl one night, and the puzzle is trashed. The next morning when Caine gets up, the puzzle is back together! I loved that, but it is complete bs. I hate the hard part of the puzzle. I recently quit a Spiderman one, because all I had left was reds and blues and black, all the same shape.
It’s easier for me to justify crosswords. They involve words, and I am a writer. Also, I believe there is a mental awareness factor that is important for us, especially as we age. The two people I know who have done crosswords forever are my brother and Aunt Faith. Aunt Faith was the sharpest 87 y.o. person I ever met, and my brother is pretty sharp too. Crosswords have been adulterated. You can find most answers on your phone. I try to put that off, but there is also something gratifying about putting a letter in a square.
So this is my question (and the main reason for this essay): Is all this just a waste of time? A way to make the days go by? The bible says: “Make the most of your time , for the days are evil…”—and I take the bible seriously. It’s easy to say “I’m retired”, but that is a rationalization. This is my flash of inspiration: God wants us to enjoy ourselves. I don’t mean hedonism (not very enjoyable anyway). I used to think Jesus left and it was our job to promote Him. Totally wrong. We just need to join Him. The operating instructions are simple: love God and love your neighbor.
This is a crazy illustration, but it’s a true story. I have finished two puzzles in this time of corona (the first I did, and this last—photo). Both times there was one piece missing! (Fellow puzzlers know how upsetting this is.) I searched high and low—and the next day Karen did too (she doesn’t like things unfinished, and she is sympathetic to me). Both times the piece appeared (miraculously, in a visible place) in the next 24 hours. I know the obvious: two old doddering idiots couldn’t see what was right in front of them—yeah, maybe. But we know for sure that when we found the piece, God and Jesus and the Holy Spirit laughed.
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