Lately I’ve rekindled a love of jigsaw puzzles I first developed in childhood. My wife and I bought a David Bowie puzzle shortly after our beloved dog Chewie passed away last January. We also got a puzzle as a gift from some friends a bit before that. This year, being a mature, middle-aged man, my wife bought me a He-Man puzzle for an early birthday present. Just about everything I love to do has a “puzzle” element to it; there’s a way that putting together puzzles makes your brain work that really appeals to me and that reflects in my other goals.

I found two easy ways to practice what I preach, to stop functioning from overwork to burnout like that crappy old guitar amp.

People, especially we denizens of western civilization, are often linear critters. Things had a beginning and will have an end. Life is a journey from birth to death to whatever comes after that (I don’t pretend to know). We mark off lives in time relative to predictable expectations and norms and “acting our age.” I am entering what is called “middle age,” bringing with it the expectation that my life is halfway between its beginning and its end, as well as expectations about what I should or shouldn’t do. This linear story often has “high points” and “low points,” an expectation of “glory days” and “good times” (usually in the younger years) and a long, steady decline full of anxiety, nostalgia, and reaction beginning around 40. Is this why middle-aged people so often start thinking the world is coming to an end?