A Word About Puzzles

Recently a friend of mine wrote his first blog. https://puzzlingdotblog.wordpress.com/

We started our conversations in jacuzzi in our fitness club. They were as quirky as unusual was our meeting place. The noise in hot tub limits parts of conversations. But you know from the beginning what some people are born writers. For me, conditio sine qua non for any writers is to have something to say. And Bob qualified. Since his first post was about life and puzzle, it brought to me a quote from Jorge Luis Borges and a person’s journey of life.

We are all on this trip. Some of us longer than others. Some have more fun than others. Some learn more than others. But towards the end, we all look back at the steps left behind. And compare with the footprints of others. Not for the sake of competition, but from sincere curiosity: what the others did with their 20, 30, 40 years? I had a unique opportunity to see friends from my Medical School class of 1967 during the recent reunion. For me, it was an eye-opener. I’ve described my feelings in the previous post https://witoldniesluchowski.com/aging/.

And then I came across a quote from Jorge Luis Borge:

A man sets himself the task of portraying the world. Through the years he peoples a space with images of provinces, kingdoms, mountains, bays, ships, islands, fishes, rooms, instruments, stars, horses, and people. Shortly before his death, he discovers that that patient labyrinth of lines traces the image of his face.

Longer I Iive more I marvel how the human body, and its brain particularly, are designed. And, since I’ve studied anatomy and applied it throughout my medical life, I know more than an average person. Roughly every 7 years all atoms in our bodies are exchanged for the new ones. So, how do we remember images and experiences acquired in our childhoods? How do we learn? How do we use events from our past to shape our future decisions? But we do, and our puzzle of life is slowly filling up. And we put our own stamp on everything we do. And what’s even scarier, the image of our face at 50 reminds the one at 30 and the one at 10. Just ask Mr. Google. He grouped the faces of the images of my every child from now, together with the images when they were born. Even my twin girls were separated correctly! Well, most of the time.

The longer I live, more I learn.