From time to time, I have enjoyed doing the crossword puzzle in the daily newspaper, the Boston Globe. Many times I started but often I didn’t finish as the constraints of my daily schedule intervened. I’d dash off to start my day abandoning the puzzle half blank. So many things changed rapidly as the Novel Coronavirus spread. When the stay at home order came my school closed, altering my daily schedule considerably. When the semester ended 3 weeks later, my schedule suddenly became a stream of similar unfocussed days, wide open. Soon solving the crossword puzzle became a regular  part of my morning ritual. Six days a week, for five months…what was once an often unfinished challenge became a daily mile stone. 

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Over the course of the lockdown, I cycled through various obsessions; post card writing, doing yoga, making and compiling lists, watercolor sketches, jigsaw puzzles, meditation, compulsive cooking…all came and went. But the crosswords remained. They began to stack up. I started to look for omens in the clues, to time myself on solutions, to recognize often repeated puzzle words…. Across and Down, 6 letters, numbered entries…all logical and predictable. 

The crosswords, with their organization, order and precision brought a measure of comfort to the unfolding chaos of the virus. So I will continue with them…I guess.