Peter Morton looks at the world through an engineer’s lens. A self-proclaimed “retirement failure,” he regularly lectures on aviation history and the history of Boeing, where he worked for decades. As someone who spent his career solving problems, the Wesley at Tehaleh Brownstone resident was understandably surprised when a jigsaw puzzle befuddled him.
The discovery
“The first step most puzzlers take is to identify and place the edge pieces, but these puzzles include edge pieces within the interior,” Peter says. “It isn’t until you open the envelope with the new pieces and reassemble the puzzle that the title of the puzzle makes any sense. Imagine the creativity of this discipline. I wrote a letter asking if the Magic Puzzle Company uses AI to create these puzzles, and they were offended.”
Peter learned that the Magic Puzzle Company contracts with artists who’ve honed the specific skill of designing a puzzle within a puzzle. His fascination with the Magic Puzzle Company led him to write the company again. He inquired about its unconventional layouts: two-part, cryptically titled patterns in which the initial construction morphs into a second creation after new pieces from the envelope are introduced.
The Magic Puzzle Company sent the Wesley puzzle group three complimentary puzzles in gratitude for their interest. When they learned of the puzzle club’s continued enthusiasm, the company sent a videographer to record the Wesley Puzzle Group working on a “magic” puzzle.
Arlene Arnold, Peter’s wife, says puzzles have always played a role in her life. “My daughter and I would make puzzles together when she was growing up. I always liked how puzzles would distract me from other things in life. It kept my mind busy, as I tend to be in my mind a lot. Puzzling is just something I have always enjoyed,” she says.
Peter had avoided puzzling before the couple moved to The Brownstone at Wesley at Tehaleh.
“I am color-deficient, so jigsaw puzzles never interested me,” he says. “When I discovered the Magic Puzzle Company, however, I became fascinated by the engineering behind a puzzle’s creation.”
Health benefits
Besides the social aspect of collective puzzling, Peter was drawn to the cognitive benefits of jigsaw puzzles, having hypothesized that the activity could delay cognitive decline. His analysis is well-founded.
A Baylor College of Medicine Blog Network post declares jigsaw puzzling “A Perfect Match” as it “improves brain health by exercising both hemispheres simultaneously, enhancing visual-spatial reasoning, short-term memory and problem-solving skills.”
A Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience study on the NIH National Library of Medicine website concluded that “jigsaw puzzling recruits multiple visuospatial cognitive abilities and is a – not necessarily causal – protective factor for visuospatial cognitive aging.”
As his name suggests, John Sharp is something of puzzle savant. He effortlessly selects pieces, usually by shape rather than color and pattern, and links them to the main puzzle without pausing his conversation. He even assembles puzzles upside down. Puzzle peer Peter says John’s talent defies logic.
“Humans are unable to maintain two thoughts simultaneously,” says Peter. “Yet John, our de facto puzzle master, can carry on a full conversation while repeatedly placing pieces in the puzzle.”
John says he enjoys any puzzle “that is meant to sharpen the mind, for example, number puzzles such as Sudoku, and computer games like Tetris, Sokoban, and Bejeweled.”
He praises the Wesley community for providing jigsaw puzzles in several locations. This adds a social element to the activity. It also means serious puzzlers and visitors can enjoy each other’s company on a regular basis.
“Some members like smaller 500-piece puzzles that they can complete in a day or two,” wrote John. “I prefer larger puzzles and more complex designs that take longer to complete. My favorite puzzle was the “Battle of Trafalgar”, a 4,000-piece puzzle that belonged to someone in our group. It took four of us about two weeks of serious work on it to finish.”
John cites a 1,000-piece “no image” puzzle that came in a black canvas bag with no picture as another favorite.
“It was titled ‘Vibrant Women’ and took about a week to finish,” he says. “Peter purchased the first puzzle from the Magic Puzzle Company and immediately fell in love with their puzzles because of the magic twist at the end.”
Each brand of puzzle has its own identity,” continues John. “We construct Ravensburger, Buffalo Games, Cobble Hill and other well-known brands. I typically consider the picture to be most important, however. Our club usually constructs 1,000-piece puzzles with an occasional 2,000-piece puzzle to challenge the group a bit more.”
Arlene says picking a favorite puzzle is like choosing one’s favorite child. “We like them all equally,” she says.
Sharing the discovery
After the group opened the box of gift puzzles from the Magic Puzzle Company, they saw a puzzle they had solved previously. The group eagerly agreed to gift that puzzle to another Wesley community’s puzzle group.
And so a group of Wesley at Tehaleh puzzlers met a group of Wesley Bradley Park puzzlers. Their mutual love of puzzles was on full display! After introductions, the groups discussed the importance of a good puzzle table, properly disassembling puzzles for the next group to re-assemble and seeking more space to store their many puzzles. They even managed to squeeze in why they chose Wesley – along with a few bad dad jokes.
“This is so much fun,” says Bradley Park resident Marilyn Knutson, as the two groups bonded and exchanged puzzles. Marilyn described some favorites, including one with a black bottom and one with a black dress. A fellow resident’s daughter has sent them 28 puzzles from China.
“These have letters on the back,” explains Marilyn. “But they’re from China. We [read] left to right, but they go right to left, so we put the edges together upside down.”
As the Tehaleh group describes the puzzle they brought for the Bradley Park group, Peter jokes, “Eventually you’ll stop cussing.”
And so Tehaleh’s Seasoned Solvers (newly named by the Magic Puzzle Company) discover magical puzzles and new friends at Bradley Park.
Stories such as these are just a glimpse of the lifestyle people enjoy at Wesley.
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