A Day, or a Life, is Like a Crossword Puzzle -by Linda Johnson
The little boxes on a crossword puzzle could be seen as the hours of our lives, to be filled in from the information, names, events, locations, people, all the memories stored in our minds throughout our life experience. Like a crossword, through a day or a life, there are all kinds of questions to respond to, odds and ends of stimuli along the way, some easy, some hard, that come at us.
We fill in the answers, the hours, as best we can. And like a crossword, there are different kinds of questions, and we make different kinds of responses in order to successfully solve the puzzle.
l. First, there are the no-brainers, the little words that most people know, whose answers are useful to a puzzle maker, like: “Oreo,” “ova,” “ala” or the “exact opposite of NNW.” These easy, automatic fillers are like the mechanics of our day that we do without thinking about: We make beds, wash dishes, turn on the computer, drive a car, know the way to work, answer a phone, fix meals…..
2. Well, some answers take more input, like finding routine solutions at work or like fixing a meal. Those hours are like having one or two letters in a longer word in the puzzle. If you have two or three ingredients, they are clues to the rest of the solution, or the meal. When we scan our brains and fill those words or solutions in, those are the “Aha!” moments, the, “Oh, of course, I just had to look and see what was there” moments. Whew, we did that one.
3. All are based on life-long knowledge that we’ve gained through going to school, listening to the news and hearing others talk, and we rely on it to solve the puzzle. For instance, the vowels, a,e,i,o,u. When in doubt, try each of the vowels as the missing letter, or go through the alphabet to find a possible beginning letter. Another “Aha”! Through all our days we have to use the long-term units we know to fill in the answers, to find solutions. Thanks goodness for school and for our bank of learnings.
4. Other clues are harder and require creativity, and sometimes we have to try another version, as in nouns versus verbs. If you thought the answer was a noun and it won’t fit, try the verb version. It’s like checking one’s bank balance before going shopping. Can’t afford the item we want? What are the alternatives? Like a crossword, we have to work within the givens and be creative.
5. Then there are the total outliers, the surprises in the puzzle and in the day. In the puzzle, it’s the pop culture celebrity you never heard of or the TV show you’ve never watched. Those may make you shrug your shoulders and say, “Well, who knows and who cares?” But you’d like to finish the puzzle. So shall you consult Google? Swallow your pride and consult someone? But, you think, a puzzle is a visible thing. Others will only be befuddled with the number of letters in a word they are not looking at. So is it best to try to get through the day and the puzzle by yourself, without help? On the other hand, if you ask for suggestions, some communal knowledge may surprisingly surface, and the feeling of success at the answer is shared! The others in the room feel smart, and you’ve gained more clues to other questions, using their answer. It’s a win/win.
6. The approach to any crossword puzzle is to use the verticals when solving the horizontals and vice-versa. Of course. That’s how a puzzle is built. The themes of our lives can be seen as the long words in any direction that can only be solved only when more letters are known. The personality traits, talents, and frailties in our lives thread through our days and affect everything else. As the hours and days go by, those perennial themes are the clues to a lot of short-term choices. The long words in life that seem like constants, such as aging, work, family, helping others and receiving help, and trying alternatives, are the enduring clues on the grid that help us find answers to life’s immediate questions.
And so, with pride and relief, we fill in answer after answer in the crossword puzzle and in the hours of our lives, hopefully without any “cross words.” (Sorry) We feel a sense of accomplishment for attempting, and perhaps answering, the unusually hard questions, and for filling in the routine ones successfully. Our day reaches that happy hour when we can say to ourselves, “We used our long-term skills, we asked for help when we needed it, and we did the best we could.” Cheers!
(Answers not to be found on any page.
Linda Johnson is a local historian and genealogist who has lived most of her life in Colorado Springs. She has published articles in genealogical journals and done speaker presentations of neighborhood history and genealogy. From 1983 to 2015, she owned and was the designer for her theatrical costume rental business, “Ivywild Costumes,” where the history of clothing merged with family studies and history. In 2015 she retired, with her husband Patrick, and relocated to Ft Collins.
