Crosswords

Lately I have been really getting into crossword puzzles. Maybe it is just that time of life where I don't have much pressure, or else it is a way of sticking my head in the sand. At night I have been challenging myself with the ones saved from many old Sunday papers that have been folded and patiently awaiting my pen. Looking back, I remember how my grandmother anticipated the time when she finished her morning duties and could sit down with the puzzle page of the daily newspaper. She could whip right through the cryptoquote, but was more pensive about the crossword puzzle, eventually solving it. I can see my young daddy now, sitting on the couch on Sunday afternoon, his long legs crossed and glasses on his head, studying the clues. Sometimes he would engage me with a question about a French word. I loved to sit close beside him and watch him think. He always wrote big capital letters in the squares so I learned to do the same. Years ago when I was at work and feeling frustrated about something that I quickly forgot, I picked up the paper, saw the crossword puzzle and with astonishment, found that I could focus on it and tune out the irritation. Prior to that moment of enlightenment, there was nothing my poor ADDled brain could focus on with such intensity. I am sure the fact that I can focus on the task of completing them is one attraction, but I also like it that I am following in the foorsteps of my predecessors who loved me.