When I find myself in times of trouble, Berdeménos comes to me…..
What's that you say? Wrong lyrics?
Not for a newbie jigsaw puzzler, like me! You see, Berdeménos* is the lesser-known, tenth Greek Muses (who were originally thought to number only nine) — she is the goddess of the broken image. She has been enormously helpful lately when we have been flummoxed by that one elusive little gol-darned, ratzin-fratzin', riggin-friggin,' rotten, crummy piece that we can't find.
Searching.
"Does this fit?"
"No! Obviously. Duh!"
"Turn it around."
"Still not it."
Rejecting.
Searching.
"There's gotta be a piece missing!"
Searching.
Cussing.
"Have you checked the floor?"
Eye rolling.
"Stupid puzzle. I hate this. Why are we doing this?"
Hair tearing.
And then….
"Wait, a sec! Is THIS it?"
Boom!
"Yes, it is! Hallelujah!"
Happy dancing!
High five-ing!
THAT, my friends is a visit from the Muse.
Those of you who have done puzzles activity for years will laugh at us. But you see, neither of us can remember ever doing puzzles, at least not since our teenage years, or maybe we did them when we were dating, back in the last millennium, and hanging out with my family at our lake cottage where my parents thought it would be fun for us to play games like Monopoly, Scrabble, Gin Rummy, and Clue, I guess to keep us from, you know, necking.
We are new to this puzzle game — and it's thrilling!
Suddenly, puzzles have taken up space in our lives. Maybe it's retirement. Maybe it's the pandemic. We're hooked! We barely get dinner on the table anymore. And we're not alone. Jigsaw puzzle have sky-rocketed in popularity since quarantines, lock-downs, and stay-at-home orders began. One company reported a 300-400% increase in sales in 2020. It was THE gift of the year and almost impossible to buy one prior to the holidays. Sold out!
Articles on the topic state the obvious: it's an activity that the whole family — or your COVID bubble — can do together on long days at home. But here's the thing. Puzzles are really engaging! For the minutes, hours, days that you are putting a puzzle together, you aren't Doom Scrolling or watching the news, or worrying. Time melts away. It isn't "Blursday" anymore, it's fully occupied puzzle time.
Looking becomes the art of "seeing." You have to really examine a puzzle piece very closely in relation to the full image to compare colours, textures, shapes, shades, nuances, details in order to assemble the picture. In that close study, you become an artist, inspecting, discerning, observing, understanding. Fitting each piece is a triumph. "BOOM!" "You got it? Good going!" You cheer your partner on. Family harmony. Pride in accomplishment. More high fives. Or fist bumps.
We got our very first jigsaw puzzle for Christmas from friends. We were dubious at first. They deep-ended us with a 1,000 piecer. We laid it all out. Turned all 1,000 pieces upright. Sorted. Separated the edges. Identified the corners.
"Good grief! Look at all these things. So many pieces! We'll NEVER get this!"
"Sure we will. We just need to make a start."
If that isn't a life lesson, I don't know what is. Summon the Muse!
* I made Berdeménos up. There are only nine muses in classical Greek Mythology, 5 of whom were assigned to five genres of poetry, and 1 each to history, tragedy, dance, and astronomy. Three muses came before them prior to the classical period, whose jobs were to inspire song, thought, and memory. "Berdeménos" means "puzzled" in Greek.
