"The art of simplicity is a puzzle of complexity." -Douglas Horton
This weekend I watched the newly released movie Puzzle at the theater. It reminded me of a previous Sacred Souls post dated March 26, 2016 in which I wrote about looking at the jigsaw puzzles and strategy games at my local Barnes and Noble. I wrote about the joy and satisfaction in putting jigsaw pieces together to form a beautiful inspirational picture and how God knows the final picture even when I am missing pieces to the puzzle.
In the movie Puzzles, the main character Agnes, a devout Catholic who is a housewife caught in an ordinary life, receives a jigsaw puzzle of the world for her birthday from her aunt. In completing the puzzle, Agnes rediscovers her mathematical talent and ability to put a jigsaw puzzle together in record time. The final piece to the world puzzle is the city Montreal that she carefully puts into place and then smiles because it is complete. She then answers an ad seeking a jigsaw puzzle partner and her whole life is turned upside down when she meets an Iranian inventor and champion puzzler. Together they enter a national jigsaw puzzle contest as a team and win because Agnes deviates from the normal rules for puzzling which requires putting together the edges first and sorting by color. The prize for the win is a trip to Belgium for the International Doubles Championship.
During the course of the movie, Agnes' marriage and family is also turned upside down when she challenges their normal life and routine. Robert, her puzzle partner, in one scene in the movie explains that everything in the universe is random and jigsaw puzzles alone, even more than love, provide the satisfaction of completing a picture.
I believe that Robert's explanation is incorrect. I believe that everything in the universe is related and that it reflects the Unus Mundus, a Latin term originating in the Middle Ages, for the deeper order of things which is based on love. Carl Jung, the twentieth century psychiatrist, referred to the seemingly coincidences in our lives as synchronicity. We all operate in the unconscious in which God reveals to our conscious in her own perfect timing. In the final scene of the movie, Agnes is on a train alone headed to Montreal after turning down the trip to Belgium with Robert. She always knew her destination and path she just needed to put the pieces together.
