Letter: Apply puzzle strategies to improve life

I don't have the foresight to predict what is going to happen "to" me in 2023, but I can assure you that what will happen "for" me is not puzzling in the least. That's because I marinate in a mostly positive, altruistic world.

Once upon a time, I couldn't imagine scenarios in which winning might be more costly than losing. But, here we are. I'm puzzled, but not entirely.

Puzzles, we all would agree, generate pictures. Those irregular-shaped, interlocking pieces if assembled properly produce thought-provoking images. Our short-term memory skills are on display along with our addictive puzzling traits of planning, testing and solving. In the process, we learn to move from uncertainty to confidence. Which begs the question: Are we really good at puzzle-solving?

For most puzzlers, the initial strategy is to do the edges first. Emphasizing connection with boundaries, as we also hope to replicate in terms of good parenting, guides us toward puzzle completion.

As the years have taught me, those four corners or pillars are most important. They set in motion the direction and potential outcome to be realized. As a parent and as a nation, we should want to recognize all four by being able to be: Loved, Understood, Needed and Affirmed.

In other words, both as a parent and as a nation, wanting, and not wishing, will help us to realize that goal set. To wish is to hope for, to want is stronger, you take action to earn it. And, as my father taught me, "Nobody cares how much you know until they know how much you care."

Bob Simmons

Arlington Heights