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My mother adored Scrabble. She devoured cross word puzzles too. Marjorie would tackle the one in the New York Times, carrying it around in her bathrobe pocket, until she had filled in every square. Sometimes she had two going at once. This is probably why her vocabulary left me in the dust with mundane adjectives like cheap, when she was facile with more elegant ones like parsimonious.
Once in a pile of second hand books I found a paperback of crossword puzzles with all the work done for me. Every page had finished riddles on it. If the purpose of such diversions is that the questions are answered, I should have been relieved. What a time saver to buy a book with all the answers already penciled in.
But instead of being thrilled, I was disappointed.
It did not feel as satisfying to just glance at each hard won letter, rather than ferreting them out myself over five mornings of coffee and toast.
I remember wishing that some older person would simply fill in my life's answers for me. Tell me how to respond to an obstreperous three year old. I don't have the time or interest to figure it out. Give me the correct dialogue to employ when conversing with my husband about taxes. I have no need to be innovative, just let me lip sync the right words.
But then it would be no more satisfying than the used paperback.
Fortunately, God is as generous with clues as the editors at the Times. Just let yourself carry the puzzle around in your pocket for a few days or years.
By the way, anyone know an eight letter word for "brisk and cheerful readiness" that has an "a" in the first and third spaces?
Photo by Chara Odhner
www.caringformarriage.org
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