Imagine, if you will, the following picture. You’re at someone’s house. It could be your own, it could be someone else’s. Maybe you have a glass of wine in one hand. You step into the dining room to discover a partially complete jigsaw puzzle. Maybe part of the edges have been done, or maybe someone has completed a house or a boat and then wandered off.
“Oh, I’ll just do a couple of pieces,” you think to yourself.
Is there anything more devious than a half-done jigsaw puzzle? You’re minding your own business. You have better things to do. Yet, hours later, you’re still attempting to fit pieces together, wondering where the heck that last edge has gotten to, because you swear you’ve touched every piece in the box at least twice.
It’s maddening, really.
Is this a writer thing? We just can’t leave something unfinished? We have to see where the thing goes, even if we can look at the picture at the front of the box?
No, really, those are all questions. My family is notoriously easy to distract with puzzles, but we’re all of the writerly bent, so I don’t know if it’s genetics or a personality thing.
Are you a writer and can you resist the call of the jigsaw puzzle? For how long? Do you have to leave the house?
Are you the sort who can work on it for a certain amount of time and then go do something else without the puzzle lurking in the back of your mind?
How long can you leave a puzzle on the table before your significant other tries to throttle you? (My husband – not as attracted to puzzles. There may be hope for our offspring, if it is a genetic thing.)
Do you sometimes seek out jigsaw puzzles like an addict?
Let me know I’m not alone, Squiders.
