How Connections Mirrors Real Life
If you’ve ever engaged with a long-term relationship with the New York Times puzzle called Connections, you’ve already seen how it sometimes imitates life.
In Connections you get 16 words. They are randomly displayed in a grid of four columns and four rows. You “group words that share a common thread.” That’s how it begins; and your job is to figure it out. Just like life.
In fact, if it’s a particularly difficult puzzle you may enter into the Five Stages of Grief: denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance.
Like life, in Connections…
- You can think too hard
- You can also walk right into traps set for you, so have flexible thinking
- You can spend too much time on the wrong path
- You find the solution so easy and are on top of the world because today you’re a genius
- Everyone else gets it; and you are humbled
- Sometimes there are perfect matches but you’re one short and have to scrap it
- Sometimes you have more than you need and you have to make difficult cuts
- Some days, you wake up and don’t like the way the whole thing looks
- You can be shocked by how you can’t make any sense of it
- You may say “why didn’t I think of that?”
- You wonder if you’re looking at a noun, a verb or an adjective
- Sometimes you do have to fill in the blank
- Shuffling things a few times gives you a new perspective
- Sometimes only a different generation can understand it
- The answer may be hidden in the clue
- If you have to remove or add a letter, it’s too late for you
- You never know when you’ll encounter evil at the hands of another
- You go through rough patches, but keep your chin up
- You may want to seek revenge but don’t
- Every day brings a new adventure
- Schmooping (the fine art of exactly matching someone else’s puzzle results) can make your day
- But if you schmoop every day, it’s not as special
And like life, sharing it with friends and family is best!
Unpacking My Adjectives 