I first published this column on Oct. 4, 2015. More than three years later, I’ve found a new approach to my addiction to puzzles. I’ll share that update next week.
The picture lies in pieces on the table, waiting for me to be drawn in. Every time I pass by, I’m tempted to stop and restore order to what is broken. It’s an addiction that is hard to resist, yet lately I’ve managed to avoid this puzzling obsession that can control my life and dominate my time.
If I’m going to get anything else done in my life, I need to stay away from jigsaw puzzles.
The truth is, working on puzzles is good for you. You learn to focus, pay attention to details and solve problems, and it’s a good time for concentrated socializing if you’re sharing the puzzling with others.
The Child Development Institute reports that puzzles are good for a child’s mind and cognitive development. They help a child “learn to work directly with their environment and change its shape and appearance,” develop hand-eye coordination and fine-motor skills, learn to recognize shapes, enhance memory and set small goals by developing a strategy to work the puzzle faster and more efficiently.
According to Social-psychiatry.com: “Human mind has two separate hemispheres or lobes called right and left-brain with each one dealing in different functions. Right brain deals with emotions and performs tasks holistically while the left-brain functions in linear fashion. When you are able to use both the sides of the brain, you will find that your mind power is harnessed to its best and gets better. Jigsaw puzzle helps you exercise both the parts of your brain.”
That website also cites the MacArthur Study, which found that doing jigsaw puzzles can help to produce the chemical dopamine in the brain, which helps with learning and memory, and can increase life expectancy by lessening the chances of Alzheimer’s and dementia.
I guess all of that makes sense, unless you have any degree of obsessive compulsive disorder. In that case, your obsession can outweigh the benefits.
For me, it’s difficult to see the unfinished pieces and not stop to put together two, or three, or 100. Once I start, I lose track of time. Starting a puzzle in the early evening hours often would stretch into the early morning hours. Before I knew it, it would be 2 a.m. I knew I needed to stop and leave it for tomorrow, but then just one more piece, or two, or 100.
So it was important for me to develop some self-control, which I’ve done through avoidance.
It was bad enough when the unassembled puzzles were at home. Then a year or so ago some people in the newsroom started puzzles on a counter in the lunchroom. It’s a great idea for most of them. No doubt it helps them clear their minds for a few minutes before returning to writing and editing. Not for me. So as I pass by, I say hello but never stop walking. Otherwise, you wouldn’t be reading this.
Despite all of that, I have some great memories about puzzles. It’s fun to spend time doing children’s puzzles with my grandchildren, and those puzzles don’t require the con- centration or time needed to do 500 or 1,000 piece puzzles.
When my wife and her brother were kids, sometimes they would take a piece and hide it so they could place the last piece. There’s something special about that honor.
My mother loves to work on puzzles, so during visits many times there was a puzzle on the table. It always was a good way to have quality family conversations. My father, on the other hand, usually didn’t spend much time at the puzzle table, but he would stop occasionally, root around the pieces, finally place one and announce, “got one,” as he tapped on it several times to make sure it was firmly in place.
Puzzles are great ways to spend time during rainy days and evenings at the shore.
I’ve learned that it’s best to start with the border pieces, then group other pieces by color. The more challenging puzzles are borderless and have similar colors in various parts of the picture. It’s also more challenging if you put away the box that has the finished picture on the cover.
As an experienced puzzler, I’ve also learned the importance of puzzle etiquette. You never reach across the table. You never work on someone else’s section unless you are invited. If you discover you and another person are working separately on the same section, offer your pieces to your fellow puzzler. Never move into another’s vacated spot unless you are sure that puzzler isn’t returning immediately.
There is something satisfying about the puzzle when it finally is completed. Most times the finished puzzle sits on the table for a few hours or perhaps a day before it is broken into pieces and put back into its box for another day. For some, puzzles are a renewable challenge.
Sometimes, however, we’ve taken completed puzzles, glued them with a special puzzle glue, and placed them in frames.
For my parents’ 50th wedding anniversary, 16 years ago, we had a puzzle made of their wedding photo. All of their children and grandchildren got together for a long weekend in cabins at a state park. No phones or television. Just quality family time. We all worked on the puzzle, which was then glued and framed as a memory of the weekend.
So puzzles provide family time, memories, a sharper mind, a longer life and a distraction from work. Perhaps it’s time I set up the puzzle table again.
On second thought, perhaps not.
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