It’s a puzzlement

Many of us remember the movie called “The King and I.” The king had a strong feeling for the teacher who had come for the education of his children. He tried to keep up with the things the children were learning but instead, he found himself frequently saying “It’s a puzzlement.” This was when some of the facts the children were learning did not agree with his way of life. This year for Christmas I received a 1,000 piece jigsaw puzzle. The picture on the box was beautiful and it looked like it would be fairly easy to put the pieces together. Not so.

My daughter and I — mainly my daughter — have been working on this puzzle for many weeks. We thought the large home with various animals around it and some trees and water should have stirred our own thoughts of our own small home that had trees and water and such around it. Again not so. Perhaps this is one of the puzzlements that we face each day.

While we are working on this puzzle we keep remembering how easy some things can seem and yet be very hard. For example, there are incidents where nothing seems to be correct but turn out to be the right answer. Again, for example, our thoughts on the word “incidents” varied. Another puzzlement.

I find much pleasure in using the iPad. I have learned several games and enjoy seeing the pictures that are sent through this instrument but one of the problems I find is that I run into some pictures that puzzle me. Why do some people use an ancient statue for their identifying picture? It seems to me that this is another puzzlement.

It seems that the older I get the less clear my ideas are. For some reason in my family of eight siblings, four children and innumerable grandchildren and great-grandchildren I find it hard to remember the names of each relative. Not only that I sometimes think that a son is a grandson or that one of my favorites is the offspring of a special one.

It’s not because I’m 92 years old, it’s because so much of life is a puzzlement.

When I was a child I had a game where I bounced the ball and said the name of a different state with each bounce. I could always name more states than any of my friends. The other children who I beat were the same age as I but they didn’t do as well. It probably was because our family traveled often and I could remember where I had been.

This is where I find more and more puzzlements. Things seemed to be alike yet the results were quite different. Differences in a person’s life experiences can cause even greater differences. That’s a puzzlement.

Do you think the same plan would apply in nature as well as in humanity? We often notice a straggly tree that has had all the advantages of a well filled out tree. So does it seem that we can judge anyone or anything by what they have lived through as well as by their age?

When friends who live in the similar assisted living as I, come out with much different ideas and thoughts, I must remember their experiences were quite different.

It is all because life is a puzzlement.