JIGSAW
Life …
It is a puzzle
That we try to put together
Endlessly
We search through the pile
Of various shapes and colors
The events and circumstances of our lives
Trying to find the pieces that fit
Gingerly connecting them together
One by one
Trying over and over again
To make all the small fragments
Interlock into a whole
At times we try to force the bits
Of our life into place
That never works out well
And we must try again
Often we get to the end
And the box is empty
Yet, we are still missing that one piece
But eventually
There before us is a beautiful picture
That is us
Dancers -- Susan Kaprov
In 1766, a former apprentice to king George III's royal geographer, the British cartographer and engraver John Spilsbury affixed maps to sheets of hardwood and carved out each country with a marquetry saw. Sensing a business opportunity in making educational tools to teach geography, he created "Dissected Maps” on eight themes (the World, Europe, Asia, Africa, America, England and Wales, Ireland, and Scotland). Lady Charlotte Finch, who had become the royal governess in 1762 upon the birth of George IV, used the new pedagogical tools to educate the royal offspring (overseeing 14 of them until her retirement in 1793) and was instrumental in promoting interest in having aristocratic mothers encouraging their children's education, though the children rarely saw their own parents. In the early 19th century jigsaws (saws which use a reciprocating blade to cut irregular curves, initially operated by a treadle) emerged, and their name became associated with the puzzles ca. 1880, when most of the work was actually done by fretsaws, used for more intricate and tighter cutting work. At about the same time cardboard jigsaw puzzles began to appear but were slow to replace the wooden ones, which had larger profit margins, but the sales of the wooden models fell after World War II as improved wages led to increased costs, while improvements in manufacturing processes made cardboard puzzles more attractive. Meanwhile, the puzzles themselves had evolved to become more complex and more appealing to adults.
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