I Am A Puzzle Solver - The Jigsaw Puzzle Process

What is a soul mate?  Is it possible to meet someone with whom you have so much in common that you say to yourself, it is destiny!  We are fated to be together!  We are two sides of the same coin!  Over 14 ½ years ago Jay and I, who had been co-workers at a more distant time in our lives, reconnected on a ballroom dance floor.  The time was right and we began to date.  One dinner stands out in both of our memories…Tuscany’s Restaurant in Palm Desert…a conversation that captured our hearts.  

"I have always wanted to travel."

"Me, too."  

"I love to browse in bookstores."  

"Me, too."  

"I hope to learn a foreign language."

"Me, too."  

"I crave Italian food."  

"Me, too."

It had happened, I had met my soul mate and we planned to begin a life together where we would walk into the future in lockstep.

For the most part, Jay and I are very compatible.  We do enjoy many of the same things.  But there are times when our differences stand up and shout!  And it happens when we least expect it.

Case in point:

We discovered that we both like to do jigsaw puzzles.  When we open one, we both become consumed with trying to find just one more piece and the rest of life stands idle on the sidelines. So we only do one puzzle a year, usually around the Christmas holiday season.  This year, we forgot to buy one in December so two days ago, while wandering down a toy aisle in a Walmart, I spotted a puzzle of Boston, a city that Jay holds dear.  Since the weather has been cold and we have a pretty free schedule I purchased it as an enjoyable home-bound activity!   

Jay immediately brought the card table up from the garage and opened the box.  While I was in the back of the house, he began the puzzle.  Later, when I went to join him, I was stunned.  What was he doing?  That is not how you do a jigsaw puzzle.  He had clusters of pieces all around the table, but half of the pieces were still in the box.  

Everyone knows you are supposed to take all the pieces out and turn them over so you can see them.  Then you find all the straight edge pieces and work the frame of the puzzle.  Then, and only then, do you begin to form the inside picture.  Why was he already putting the bicycle together that is in the lower right-hand side of the puzzle?  He is a rational man so I tried to explain the logical process to him and he, in a calm passive-aggressive mode nodded his head while looking for another piece of the wheel.  I decide the best I could do is try to build the frame.

This morning, after coffee and the newspaper, Jay headed back to the puzzle.  I made the mistake of leaving him alone for about 20 minutes.  When I returned to the living room I saw that the puzzle had migrated to the kitchen island, where some of the pieces had been spread on the multicolored granite.

You never have the pieces scattered in various parts of the room.  That is how you end up experiencing the most hated of puzzle situations, the one lost puzzle piece! And multicolored granite?  You always spread the pieces out on a solid dark background so you can identify the specific colorations.  This was hopeless.

I look over at him intently manipulating one piece after the other and he looked up, caught my eye, and gave me that smile that lights up his whole face and, in turn, lights up my heart.  So, maybe we are not soul mates when it comes to the puzzle process.  But in the grand scheme of things, compared to the big picture of our lives, I don’t mind bumping into each other as we assemble the puzzle!  As long as he doesn’t lose one of the pieces!

And he didn't!  We finished the puzzle today.  We were down to the last dozen or so pieces when Gabriel arrived.  He muscled his way in between us, saying, "Here, Mima, give it to me, I can find it."  

And find it he did and eventually put in the last piece.  His last words to us were, "Why don't you get me a puzzle?"  It will be a future gift item and with it I will be sure he learns the proper puzzle process!