Open minds solve puzzles
During the Covid-19 lockdown period I started the habit of doing the Simon Shuker’s code-cracker in the Taranaki Daily News each day.
For those unfamiliar with the puzzle, it is a block of 13 by 13 squares with some blanked out like a crossword. The number in the corner of each of the squares represents a different letter of the alphabet.
Either one or two letters and their number are given as clues to start the puzzle.
And therein lies one of the main challenges! If I made an incorrect decision when I first started doing the puzzle, everything might look OK for a while, but then things started to unravel and the sequence of letters I was left with could not possibly make a word.
And then there were the either-or situations. Was the word going to be relief or belief? Was the first letter an R or a B? I knew what the last five letters were, but what was the first letter?
So I had to scan all the other squares with the same number as the first letter in my problem word and try to work out what fitted in those squares best – an R or a B.
When I thought about it, the code-cracker puzzle is a good representation of many of the decisions we have to make in our life.
Sometimes we can start off with a hiss and a roar and think we are on the right track and there is no stopping us.
But then we find that our initial thinking was flawed and we need to retrace our steps and get a few things sorted out before we continue.
Then there are the either-or situations. One path looks as good as the other, but in reality only one is going to work out the best. So we have to sit and think about which one we will take to achieve our long-term goal.
We have all been significantly affected by Covid-19. I did not get to the United Kingdom to celebrate my brother’s 70th birthday; others missed out on special family gatherings; employers and employees found themselves in situations they never imagined they would find themselves in; and working from home became a new normal, as did online learning for students.
Now, as we come out of the Covid-19 restrictions (hopefully permanently) perhaps we will all need to make more or totally different decisions compared with what we would have done before Covid-19.
We are pretty much in uncharted territory now regarding the economy and what the future for businesses, cafes, entertainment, sports and social clubs may look like.
However, it is not only on a national level that decisions need to be made. We are all provided with an opportunity to think what we want our own future to look like.
How will we spend our time and money? Do we want a frenetic lifestyle of appointments and commitments forever, or do we want more quality time with family and friends?
In the book of Proverbs, in the Old Testament, chapter 12 verse 15, we can read: ‘‘The way of a fool is right in his own eyes, but a wise man listens to advice’’.
This verse encourages us to listen to advice. Perhaps what we think is good for us and our friends and family is not necessarily the case.
I think back to the challenge I had with the code-cracker. Was it relief or belief? Both fitted the space, but only one meant I got the best end result – that is, the puzzle finished.
Let us find the people around us who can be a sounding board for us as we think of new ways of doing things or embark on a new venture or consider a career change because what we have done up until now is no longer feasible.
We do not have to accept everything they say 100 per cent. But just being open to new ideas or new ways of doing things might just help us to ‘‘crack the code’’ of what the future will look like for us!