FRIDAY, AUGUST 16, 2024 -JIGSAW PUZZLES

 FRIDAY, AUGUST 16, 2024 - PIECES

As a child, I “collected” jigsaw puzzles.  My parents had a candy store in downtown Cedar Rapids, Iowa.  I did some odd jobs and got a small allowance.  With my allowance, I crossed third avenue at second street (at a crosswalk) and went to Kresge’s department store and “drooled” over the Guild jigsaw puzzles.  I might have bought twelve a year (one a month) and put the puzzle together.  (And, if I didn't find a puzzle that appealed to me, I left out the back door of Kresge's and in the bad door of Woolworths right across the alley!!)

At home there was almost always a card table with a puzzle on it.  The 304-piece puzzles were great.  In an afternoon I could put together a puzzle.  

(Side note - I don’t know much about how to make a jigsaw puzzle, but it seemed like most of the puzzles had the same cut.  So even though the pictures were different, the basic structure was the same.  Sometimes it would be that what was the bottom pieces on the last puzzle were the top pieces on the new puzzle.  Thus is a piece that was a little different was always next to the same other pieces.  I supposed the pictures came down an assembly line, a cutting machine crunched the pieces, and they went into a box.)

Over time I got a good collection.  There were real pictures (like Needles Highway in South Dakota and Mount Rushmore), and more paintings (like the auction puzzle in the picture.  And I got experienced at assembling the pieces.  

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Okay, Karen - so what.  

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So, the puzzles were 29 cents.  (I’m not sure anything is 29 cents these days!!!).  The puzzles I have are well over sixty years old.  

My parents moved from our bigger house to a smaller house in between my freshman and sophomore years at college.  My puzzles went into a corner of the garage.  I remember the day when my mother said “Son, we’re going to move again, take the puzzles you want, and we’ll get rid of the others.”  I selected four puzzles.  (Another aside - now I wish I would have taken all of them, not just the four).

And, I have moved a few times.  I have two puzzles on a shelf in my closet. The other day, other than writing a blog, I took the auction puzzle and put it together.  It took about 1.5 hours.  (Aside, it was upside down - and the familiar shapes that were “normally” on the bottom were on the top.)

And it was fun.  (It also kept me from getting my 10,000+ steps for the day.)

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Karen is trying to get to her point.

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Our lives are like puzzles - sometimes our lives are in pieces.  When you dump a puzzle on a table, some pieces are face-up, and other pieces are upside down.  It takes time to get the pieces all facing up, and then more time to assemble the borders, and finally to finish the whole puzzle.  

The puzzle is still on my table.  Living along, it seems like most of my home meals are not eaten on my table but in my lap.  In a day or two (or five or six), I’ll take the puzzle apart and put it back in the box and back on the shelf.  

Assembling this puzzle brought back vague memories of assembling puzzles on a snowy January afternoon or watching a college football game on a Saturday.  It was part of my childhood.

But are lives are like the puzzles - sometime missing pieces and many times in a box on a shelf in a closet.  Who are we?  Where are we going.

This puzzle is missing a piece.  I think it is aground.  I checked around the table but didn’t see it.   I believe (or maybe just hope) that the piece will show up before I put it away.  

As it is, the puzzle is flawed.  It is missing a piece.  But, hey, my life is flawed too.  There are pieces and places in my memory, that aren’t there anymore.  Maybe the pieces will show up again - I have memories - but there are times I want to relive those memories by visiting family and friends.  I remember Uncle Rob (and Aunt Selma) and their farm, and Uncle Bob (and Aunt Opal) and their farm.  I remember climbing in the hayloft and scaring the sheep.  I remember the smells in the barns.  It was part of my life.  

I’ll assemble the two puzzles I still have (plus the several other puzzles I have bought) again.  It will be therapeutic for me.  

The process helps me keep my foundation.

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I was remembering the Beatles Song - “In My Life”:

There are places I'll remember
All my life, though some have changed.
Some forever, not for better.
Some have gone and some remain.

All these places had their moments
With lovers and friends, I still can recall.
Some are dead and some are living,
In my life I've loved them all.

Tho' I know I'll never lose affection
For people and things that went before,
I know I'll often stop and think about them,
In my life I love you more.

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I see senior people at a nursing home five evenings a week.  I’m sure they have places they remember, and some have gone (maybe most have gone), and some remain.  I try to introduce new positive memories.  I blow up balloons and let them fly, I bring in some of my puzzles.  I’ve made hats out of tagboard paper, and bracelets out of pipe cleaners.  

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And I try to make new memories every day - and find new ways to love - new ways to let LOVE WIN in my life and in the lives of others.

May LOVE always win in your hearts and minds!!!

Karen White, August 16, 2024