Last week I wrote about feeling a loss of hope for the survival of our democracy, which friends helped me identify. I told you that the journalist Jamelle Bouie called it “political despair”, and that being politically active with others from your point of view can help restore hope.
Since then I’ve come across another name for this national malaise. In the current Atlantic magazine, Jennifer Senior says,
Our bodies are not designed to handle chronic stress. Neuroscientists have a term for the tipping-point moment when we capitulate to it—allostatic overload.
Many of us try to manage stress by finding a sympathetic soul, or by using up our reserves of patience and optimism, and even inventing a kind of protective denial. But wishful thinking can’t always protect our bodies from the effects of constant stress. Senior goes on to say,
Excess levels of the stress hormone cortisol for extended periods is terrible for the human body; it hurts the immune system.
Over the past eight years, the damage to body and soul has become all too evident. But what is one to do?
I’m going to suggest the healing powers of one of the most fragile and yet one of the most common things on earth. Paper.
Think of how friendly letters enclose you for a few minutes in an intimate, tranquil world, whether reading or writing one. And writing a Letter to the Editor connects you to your community.
Writing in a daily journal helps you see the meaning of your emotions by changing them into ordered thoughts.
Speaking of pages, a recent article about improving your memory skills recommends reading books for pleasure.
But the healing power I’m looking for in this first week of 2024 is a more carefree kind of engagement. Remember, as you dive into a year of existential change, you can always turn from the headlines to the puzzle page. Yes, paper puzzles are still available.
The first crossword was published on the 'Fun' page of The New York World on 21 December 1913. It was invented by British journalist Arthur Wynne, who emigrated to the United States in the 1890’s.
I like Simon & Shuster Crossword Puzzle Books because they’re a little bit vintage, like me.
For example, you might find a puzzle in Simon & Shuster where the clue for 10 Down is, “He wrote the lyrics for West Side Story”. Eight letters, the fourth one a “D” and ends with “M”.
I found that this famous lyricist said, “The nice thing about doing a crossword is you know there is a solution.”
(To find the solution to 10 Down, see the notes at the end of the post.)
Crossword puzzles were a craze in the mid-1920’s. This cartoon is from Punch.
I myself used to do Sudoku every day. I even erased my pencil marks from a whole book so I could do it again! But like all puzzle crazes, after a while mine passed.
Sudoku was likely started by Leonhard Euler, a mathematician from Switzerland, in 1783. He called the game “Latin Squares”. Later it was called “Magic Squares”, a variant on today’s Sudoku. It’s believed that retired architect Howard Garns is the inventor of Sudoku as we know it today.
By comparison, today’s version seems almost too easy. I confess, my example below is “Level: Intermediate”. But I’m not afraid of Advanced, if I have the time.
I see I have run out of Substack space for this post. But next week, if the artwork below by J. R. R. Tolkien doesn’t scare the cat onto the roof so it misses its dinner, I’ll tell you more about the kinds of puzzles that keep me focused and bolstered for the next day’s headlines.
Thank you for the very worthwhile suggestion. I'm a Wordle fanatic and find that when a solution in my head is taking too long, just using a piece of paper to put down the letters and spaces I have is a tremendous help. I do my journaling with my camera. No subject escapes my lens. My images are uploaded to Google Photos and I have a Lenovo Smart Display screen on one of my kitchen counters that I watch first thing in morning as I prepare breakfast. Those images help me remember good times I might have otherwise forgotten.
Yes...these stress of these days can be and IS overwhelming so anything i can do to divert my attention from what's going on is very valuable. My husband prefers to have breakfast as he watches MSNBC's "dose of doom". I find Steve Hartman's videos about kindness very uplifting and would prefer to watch them! Discovered them on YouTube - another of my addictions. https://youtu.be/m4RssE5Mskg?si=eyhrOXEYI5IhSZ6g
Would also suggest for your readers who spend too much time sitting as their bodies deteriorating from misuse, to take a look at the exercises on this YouTube channel. I started with a 5 minute walking workout and am graduating to longer ones. Recommended it to my 89 year old sister and she's loving them: Channel is "yes2next".
Have to put a plug in for a YouTube Premium subscription. With it you can eliminate the ads that will start and interrupt your viewing. The selection of subjects on YouTube is enormous. When something around the house has to be fixed, we've found videos that have shown us the how-to. I love BBC's "Escape to the Country" real estate videos. Delightful escapes the not only show us incredible beautiful powerline-less country, but also make me appreciate my American home with built in STORAGE!
Love your posts, Deda. Puzzles DO have healing powers. Every day I do Wordle, Quordle, Octordle, the NYT mini crossword, Worldle (geography), Connections, Letter Boxed. Some days, I do miserably, but it keeps me from cursing at the news and lamenting how helpless I feel in these troubled times.
Online links that bring a measure of peace to me:
upworthy.com
goodnewsnetwork.org
reasonstobecheerful.world
From the last link, here are 177 ways the world got better in 2023!!!!!!
https://reasonstobecheerful.world/the-year-in-cheer-2023/?utm_source=Reasons+to+be+Cheerful&utm_campaign=0387eb081d-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2021_11_22_04_40_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_89fb038efe-0387eb081d-389830249