Puzzles
There is something in the human nature to seek to impose order on chaos. Even if it is a little thing like picking up litter on the street and putting it in a trashcan or putting up your dishes in your kitchen, there is something satisfying about taking a disorderly mess and making it orderly. Perhaps this instinct goes back to when our ancestors lived close to nature. The more order they could create around them, the safer they were. So when our world is orderly, we feel safe and at rest.
Many people use that instinct in their jobs. If we looked at it right, many jobs come down to taking a situation that is out of control and taking control of it. From the maid to the dentist to the farmer to the fireman, each of these jobs and hundreds more go into a situation that is chaotic and imposes order where it was not there before.
In fact, this desire to "fix things" is one reason why we all love to do puzzles so much. It is funny when you think about it that we all spend our working days making a product where there was not one before or fixing things that are out of control but when we want to relax, we like to do the same thing with a good mystery, puzzle or game. But that is how strong our need to make things more orderly is that when we cannot get enough of being "order bringers" in life, we might just go home and dump a 1000 piece jigsaw puzzle on the table and impose order for hours on end just for the fun of it.
Our minds live to seek and create patterns. Whether it is a jigsaw puzzle or solving a Sherlock Holmes mystery, both activities involve finding patterns that were hidden and using that knowledge to resolve a puzzle. We think of puzzles primarily as crossword puzzles, anagrams, riddles or jigsaw puzzles. And those are outstanding examples of recreational puzzles that have an enduring appeal.
But even watching Murder She Wrote on television or reading a mystery novel calls upon us to try and solve a puzzle. We use that same logical power of observation and pattern recognition to find the clues we need to resolve the mystery. The mystery novel or movie is just as much a puzzle as that 1000 piece jigsaw you like to do at the holidays.
Puzzles like crosswords, Sudoku and jigsaws have been around for ages. We can find evidence of puzzles and riddles being woven into the pattern of society in just about any civilization archeologists have studied. There are riddles and puzzles in The Bible, ancient Greek myths and fables that go back literally for centuries. So the next time you sit down to relax and enjoy a leisurely evening with family or friends working on a puzzle or mystery game, you can reflect that you are in good company because imposing order on chaos through puzzles for fun is a form of recreation that is common to all civilized peoples.
