Offering 2024–012

some puzzle pieces -

chutzpah, township, flips
expectation, flip, fascinated
discernible, naked, aims
ambitions, eggplant

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Puzzled by the word ‘puzzle’? What if I told you that pieces are the English language and that the puzzle is my life?

After years of aborted attempts, I discovered a journaling practice that works for me. Almost every morning, I sit down and write whatever comes to mind in a stream of consciousness fashion. I don’t worry about content. I don’t worry about grammar. I don’t worry about structure. I don’t worry about punctuation. I don’t worry about who is going to read it… because no one will. This journal is for me and me alone.

Take notice, dear reader, this is one of the few times the average person get an opportunity to peak behind this particular curtain.

My journal currently has 79,982 words in the 241 entries since June 2023. I’ve used 5,225 distinct words over that span. The eleven ‘pieces’ I highlight today found their way into my journal for the very first time this morning. This suggests that they’ve not been at the forefront of my mind before, but are today for some reason.

So, what kind of picture of me can you come up with using these words? To be honest, I myself had to go back and read today’s journal to figure out why I used these words, so I don’t suppose you will be able to either. Without other words to provide context, you can’t even be sure these words mean what you think they mean. Consider the following:

• I live in a township, but this is the first time I’ve included that word in my journal.
• Be honest, you got a little weirded out by my use of the word naked. What if I told you the next word was ‘eye’, would that make you feel better? (That’s a true statement, by the way.) Thr
  ow in the word ‘discernible’ a few words before and you get a much more… uhh.. discernible picture.
• What if I told you that ‘flip’ and ‘flips’ had two different meanings with the first one desctibing a clock and the second one describing my attitude towards a topic?
• What if I told you ‘aims’, ‘ambitions’, and ‘eggplant’ were part of a single thought?

Yes, life is a puzzle with many unique pieces. For me, one of the larger pieces of the puzzle is writing. I find it fits into the bigger picture quite nicely.