Puzzling
January 7, 2014
Oh my god I had fun with this puzzle. I just love jigsaws anyway–whatever they are: castles on the hill, baskets of fruit, whatever; they’re all good. For the OCD-leaning among us, jigsaw puzzles are the perfect sorting and organizing project. Seriously, I’ve never met a bag of M&M’s I didn’t color-sort, so a 1000-piece puzzle is h e a v e n. For the Buddhist-leaning among us, it’s a meditation on the now–nothing like a jigsaw to bring you immediately into a present state. It’s also mentally consuming–focus, concentration, endurance. What I especially love: doing a jigsaw is a pure and simple task with the clearest of finish lines. It starts when you sit down, ends when you get up.. you know what you’re in for, you are making progress each and every time you place a piece, and you know when it’s over because you’re looking at a finished product. Done, fini. And it is enormously satisfying at each of its stages. I will find myself leaving whatever else I might be doing to go all the way into the living room to admire my work, like constantly throughout the day. It’s weird.
Anyway.
So, yeah, they’re totally fun. But this one was the best. I was so hugely pleased with my idea of making a puzzle out of us! Nobody else was that into it, kind of a bummer, but that turned out to be fine, puzzles aren’t everybody’s obsession; didn’t diminish my fun and they did admire it along the way. Smile.
So… ta da!
One of its funnier stages:
How dizzying and abstract the process can be (a potential future profile pic). Hair can look exactly like granite, just so you know.
The stuff of nightmares:
And its source photo:
That kid in red? Cutest thing..
Life of Wry 
January 8, 2014 at 1:00 am
I am so delighted that you’ve resumed writing Life of Wry!
And just today I was in an art store here in Singapore and noticed a product called jigsaw glue. Are you planning to preserve the masterpiece, or is it all about the process, which you so beautifully describe? While I am not a puzzle person, it’s fun to read about why you love it.
January 8, 2014 at 9:06 am
1. I’m so pleased to be writing daily.. even if journal-y. It’s a good place to document certain aspects of daily life that I’m sure would fade from memory.
2. It’s almost totally the process. Love the finished product (god knows, it’s all about completing the thing) and this one was particularly fun b/c it was us.. and along the way, I might say, ‘oh, i found your gold tooth,’ and that was hilarious, but the rest of it is process. So took it apart already. But then **we** can do it again! Maybe next time I’ll get some help. Peter helped with the first couple puzzles this year, which was extremely nice.. we talked a lot and just hung out w/ this shared goal (not lofty at all, but fun). It’s why I ordered this one. But for some reason they didn’t sit down w/ me initially, and then it became mine alone.. not sure why, but that was the vibe. So I just did it. They both watched a bunch, and congratulated me along the way.. but didn’t do any.