It’s sunny today after yesterday’s snow. The suburbs were hit much harder than the city; I’m not sure how much we got but near the Wisconsin border it was 4.5 inches. Now it’s cold, so all that snow will likely turn to ice.
It’s still February.
I like to do jigsaw puzzles, and I had a bunch done, stacked, waiting for me to find the perfect preservation system. It turns out clear Elmer’s and a spreader work the best for me; I’m sure everyone has their method.
But I cannot keep all of them, I have no space to hang them all, so I decided I would return one back to its original state, strips lifting first together and then crumbling apart. Handful by handful placed into a zip top bag, back into its box, ready for someone else to have a turn.
Where it’s going to go, I am not sure.
Another one I would have let go of already has adhesive backing on it. It’s not the best, so it might be possible to remove it from that, but I’m not sure it wouldn’t damage the puzzle. Too bad I didn’t know what I’d want to save later.
It was a very difficult puzzle, wintry with snow and birds matching the snow and a light house. It’s beautiful in a moody way.
But is it my mood?
It’s too bad we can’t always know what, exactly, we’ll want to save. We can’t always know what future us will like, future us will want.
Future us will want to break apart, piece by piece by piece.
It’s all puzzles, really.
Only we can’t always be sure we have all the pieces.
There’s no picture to check the finished thing against, no hints, no posters included.
And a lot of the pieces don’t fit at all. In fact they feel like they’re from another puzzle entirely. Forget the zip top bag.
We’re talking embedded somewhere under a sofa in deep pile carpet.
Huh, I fear I may have gone a little astray, but still, I’m sure you’re with me.
The point is this. Not all puzzles are ours to keep, and not everything needs a shiny coat to laminate it.
Have a great Thursday.
A Bit to Read 
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