JIGSAWS

  That is a word which appeared very few times in my spoken lexicon. I can recall using a jigsaw on a solid wood door, carving out a mail slot. No idea where or why I thought of that, and that I could do it, but anyway, that is how we received our mail for the next 26 years. The next time jigsaws came into my common vocabulary is when the jigsaw of my life changed, and I became enamored of working with wood. Jigsaws, manual and electric, there it was.

Then a real surprise. I, who could not put together the 20-piece puzzles that my little kids left undone, began to watch members of the family who had a knack for jigsaw puzzles. I began to be drawn in, admiring their impossible to believe ability to do this and wondering where the heck that gene came from. Then a surprise. I began finding pieces that belonged together, Mind you, I couldn't fit them together, only group them. That was good enough for me.

Dear lord! I found a 100-piece puzzle, meant for kids, and managed over two days to put it together. After another one I graduated to 300-piece puzzles and there I remain, a puzzle spread out on half the table, I, finding a piece or two every time I wander by. Good enough for me - at least right now. Still amazed that I can do this, let alone liking the challenge. The jigsaw of my life changed yet again, and I welcome all these new interests. Good for the brain they tell me!

Unfortunately, beyond jigsaws as tools and puzzles, there is the jigsaw of life in which we presently find ourselves. It is a jigsaw that is almost live, changing according to actions and words of others, and self, sometimes on an hourly rate. Old pieces no longer fit in anywhere, and new pieces, unsure of where they belong complicate the entire matter. The puzzle maker seems to be having a great deal of fun even as we struggle to keep up. A bit more time to internalize, assimilate the changes, would be most appreciated. Certainly by me!

Finally, we come to the jigsaw of life that is our fate right now. I think our karma could use a refreshing, a spring cleaning, but I sincerely doubt that will happen. As a substitute method, we need to resituate our jigsaws. In fact, some of us need to find it and the old pieces again and incorporate the pieces they have rejected. Simply because they did not like them, for various unfounded reasons. We must be alert to new, unsettling pieces trying to insert themselves in our jigsaws, where they do not belong, where they will cause havoc. On the other hand, there are new pieces that would be beneficial, help us solve this new jigsaw that we all face, the jigsaw which has turned sour on us - or perhaps because of us. We must recognize reality, adjust to it and find the correct, cooperating pieces to complete the puzzle, to create a whole, a beautiful new picture, a pleasing and most pleasant result.

It is a must that we do this. Reading the news, hearing the words and events revealed yesterday in the Jan. 6 hearing, I found my jigsaw foundering. Where have these people come from? How have they allowed, encouraged, bought into the words of a most visibly mentally ill man, a man determined to become the ruler of this country, to destroy all the old jigsaws we valued, and replace it with dark, sharp-edged pieces difficult to handle, inimical to any hope and dream of a future jigsaw beneficial to all. 

We were, on Jan. 6, perilously close to setting our personal jigsaws on fire, along with that of the nation. Too close to allow any breathing room at all. Yet we must not hold our breath and pray for the powers that be to find the pieces of their puzzles which will show what should and could be done. They will find pieces which stand for truth and justice. They will find the pieces that give them shame at what they have allowed, this most ugly harmful fungus, mold, on our country's foundation. Those who now catalogue how 'hard' they fought to avoid disaster - well, they did not do their jobs. They chose the wrong pieces of the puzzle and insisted on trying hard to make them fit, to the point of further misshaping them, causing a cascade of falling puzzles of so many, too many. Their national and personal puzzles began to darken, to exchange once very pleasant overall picture pieces into pieces of an ugly ramble and thistle infested puzzle scene with dark overtones to a degree that obscured the truth of the discarded pieces.

Thus, while we can have fun with the manufactured jigsaw puzzles, changing and adjusting, it is different with the jigsaw of our outer lives, that of our country. Once it was a jigsaw, welcoming, fitting in the new pieces, growing as the country did, allowing for positive growth and change as well as the rejection and discarding of misfit pieces. 

The current puzzle is quite different. We must return to the mentality and acceptance of that salad bowl, that bag of M&Ms, that puzzle that was the entryway for so many, a philosophy that was always challenged but always survived. Now that survival of the jigsaw puzzle is at stake. Its philosophy will be discarded, the picture grow ugly and dark. 

We need to choose the correct puzzle, the proper pieces, the good, bright ones, the permanent ones that provide the framework of the puzzle while allowing for positive change within. Jigsaws can be fun. They can be productive. But they need tending and proper process and use. Else tragedy can take place. It is that tragedy we must prevent right here in our own jigsaw puzzle of life.