Heaven, help me. First, it was Wordle. An oddly satisfying game. I investigated letter frequency, studied combinations, and built a spreadsheet, because why would you continue to harvest by hand when you could use a combine. Then came Connections. Not so satisfying. Sometimes the four word groups take large leaps. But it pays to relax and think of all the ways a word can be used. And sometimes you get it when you get it and mostly it’s when you’re not looking, like the time the common denominator was things that are orange. Really?

And now comes the Mini. A little crossword. And I never liked crosswords. But I like the Mini, and the other day I solved it in less than a minute, a feat I’ve never repeated, so far. But I’m learning to like crosswords, and now I’m thinking that maybe I should venture into that realm. It appears there may be more to the pastime than first met my eye, which had neither patience nor focus. Now I realize crossword puzzles make you slow down and think, and thinking feels good. Sort of like Suduko, but not quite, and I’m still not sure I’ve figured out the logic of that puzzle.

And I wonder now, if I had gotten into crosswords and puzzles in my youth, how it might have affected me and my career and my life. I think, probably, it would have helped because working with all those clues and variations of words and meanings seems a good form of mental gymnastics. And working out my brain like that every morning gives me a nice shot of endorphins even when I see no connections in Connections or struggle for a missing letter in the Mini. As per usual, it seems as though it’s the doing that counts, because even in failure you learn things and get better.