Marilyn Brinkman
St. Joseph
I do jigsaw puzzles. I remember getting them as Christmas gifts as a kid and started doing them again during the Covid epidemic when I had time on my hands. Once I started again, I was hooked. I found I enjoyed doing them, like playing with an old toy, and they were a challenge. In no time, I was doing 1,000-piece puzzles.
There are people who believe jigsaw puzzles are a waste of time and effort. I don’t. There are other people like me who believe jigsaw puzzles offer a challenge that can be solved in a variety of ways.
Puzzles offer a sense of accomplishment – and satisfaction when completed. We know that puzzles offer some major health benefits.
Puzzles can help reduce stress levels. When you’re faced with a difficult puzzle, your brain works hard to come up with a solution.
Challenging your brain helps keep your mind active and engaged. Your brain is what allows you to think, learn and remember. It is essential to keep your brain sharp throughout your life. There are many things you can do to keep it healthy and active. Completing puzzles is a prodigious first step in the right direction.
Puzzles also help distract you from any stressful thoughts or problems you may be dealing with. Plus, the sense of satisfaction you feel when completing a challenge like this is a great way to boost your mood and reduce stress.
Moreover, you improve your concentration and focus skills. When you are doing a puzzle, you must concentrate on the piece in front of you and how it fits into the puzzle; you need to focus on where the other pieces go and how they fit together. Just like when I sew quilts.
Some history: Puzzles have been around for centuries. The first jigsaw puzzle allegedly was created by a map engraver named John Spilsbury in 1762. He mounted one of his master maps onto wood and then cut around the countries. He gave it to children in the local school to help them with their geography education. And in that act, jigsaw puzzles were created.
The puzzle is called a jigsaw puzzle because the picture, originally attached to wood and later to paperboard, was cut into pieces with a jigsaw, which cuts intricate lines and curves.
A 1,000-piece puzzle has a solving time range of five to 12 hours and an average solving time of nine hours. It’s great for leaving out on the table and chipping away at, one piece at a time.
The official term that describes a person who puts jigsaw puzzles together is “dissectologist.” For those who think puzzles give you puzzle-itis or puzzle addiction, not true! I consider myself a dissectologist!
I do puzzles faithfully. After watching me do them and enjoying them, my husband has also become a dissectologist. We often do them together. He built me a puzzle board so if we want to put a puzzle aside for a time, we just close the drawers and slide the whole thing under the bed, out of sight.
Sometimes I work on them early in the morning to start my day. Then I write, sew quilts, garden (in summer) or volunteer at church or community events. And I walk one to three miles every day to keep my body in shape. In the evening, once the news is over and there’s nothing worth watching on TV, I may spend another hour or so on a puzzle.
Oh yes, another thing, do you know that you are a jigsaw puzzle yourself? That’s an interesting analogy in that it indicates how important it is to place all the right pieces together in your life to see the bigger picture.
Marilyn Brinkman of St. Joseph is a columnist for various local newspapers, a historian, a poet, author of a children’s book and a member of the St. Joseph Parish Quilting Group.
Marilyn Brinkman
