KT Man,
This morning in our new routine (thanks to you), your mom and I just preflected on the day. BTW: Have you ever wondered who made up the stupid rule that English could have reflect but not preflect, which is ‘thinking deeply about all things ephemeral and actual about to happen”.
As you know, our routine before your death was to have a cup of coffee centered on the newspaper. I would read every article while she skimmed them and got into her favorite part of the paper: Jumble. At some point, the first words after good morning was me usually groaning or growsing about politics or the craziness of everywhere/one while she silently ignored/acknowledged as only she could do. I thought her silence was that grown from living together for so many decades of us being partners. This may be so, but I’m convinced it was really due to her seriousness about jumble. She was like a bird dog on the hunt.
Today, she explained jumble to me: A cartoon, a list of five words in boxes and circles that were jumbled (scrambled) in their spelling, and a row of boxes below them that needed to be spelled from the various letters in the circles above, once the word was correctly spelled. Kind of technical.
I noticed this summer and you living with us again, that you were a serious student of jumble, which may in part explain why you really didn’t read the newspaper (though I also now know you were a social media junkie like everyone your age). Of course, this discovery took time to realize but your mom knew it right away. She would copy the jumble of the day and have it out for you every morning.
Well buddy. We've been given five words with endless images of you in the lead.
a t h l e t e
a u t h e n t i c
c o l l a b o r a t i v e
c u r i o u s
g e n e r o u s
These five simple elegant words came to us from the deep reflections of Sam and Ellen on assignment to capture the essence of your life. But in our form of jumble, the scramble isn’t in the spelling of the words: it’s in the meaning of the words. The letters form words that form meaning and from that form context and eventually form understanding. But in our form of jumble, this train of words stops short of that last and crucial element needed to solve the puzzle: understanding. Sorry, but we just don’t understand. It’s not comprehensible.
Where we come back to the normal form of jumble, these five words land on the two boxes below them: KT.
BTW: As anyone will attest in how I play with language (I make up words which is why no one in the family will play Scrabble with me). Well, I also make up rules (which is likely to considered in a future letter to you). My new rule for Jumble is: If the solution is with only two letters, feel free to fill in the one that fits and add any other letter you would like.
We love you.
Dad
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