First off, a little primer on Sudoku for those unfamiliar with it. Sudoku is a fun, simple, yet challenging game….much like life. There is a very symmetric nine by nine grid that contains numbers one through nine. Each row, each column, and each of the nine smaller squares comprising the larger square contain the numbers one through nine exactly once. Meaning if a column already has a seven then none of the other cells in that column can have a seven. Depending on how many of the 81 cells have a value given by the creator, and their layout, that particular puzzle is rated from easiest to hardest. Usually there are around 25 or so given and the remaining (56) to be determined. I always have a book of sudoku with me when I board (or bored!) a plane. For fans of Sudoku, there are other similar games to explore, like Ken-Ken; but I digress.
Some of the rows have nothing in them, others are already nearly half full. This is the same for the columns and the nine smaller included squares. Some of us know that we love working with our hands, others know that we need to be around people, still others know that they thrive being around curious children eager to learn how to use their hands to explore and build a better world (maybe a six in column three). Some of us are born with a congenital condition or blond hair or no sense of humor (two in upper left box). We get in car crashes and win awards and marry wonderful women named Jacqueline (that four is also in column one). The columns and small boxes and rows are NOT independent of each other. The information from the column analysis informs and determines relationships in the row analysis. You cannot un-walk the path. We cannot remove a single isolated experience from our lives or change our height without affecting all kinds of stuff. It is all related. It is all built of a handful of elementary “particles”, digits one through nine (or letters A, T, C, and G)! Repeating, patterns, real and imagined. Strange! Yet Charming, from top to bottom.
It’s just a game. It evaporates. It is so meaningful yet really impermanent. We cannot cheat and force a six into that darn cell no matter if it satisfied the row and the column (if that particular square already has a six elsewhere). We cannot violate the laws of thermodynamics, if it seems we have it is simply an illusion. Money cannot flow from poor to rich without external (impermanent) work being done.
We can scribble down numbers that either can go or cannot go into a particular cell. I’m pretty sure I’m running a marathon or signing a contract with the Boston Celtics in this life. I am sure that I will publish a book. I tend to work in pencil rather than pen, but will use a pen when I am double-dog positive of the value of a particular cell (I am NOT going to be a surgeon or an elementary school teacher, in PEN!)
When it is all done it either is correct and nothing is violated or we made a mistake. We go to bed with a clear calm conscience or we do not fall asleep. It is just a game. It is a fun game, but only a game!