“A 50-year-old has started to do the daily sudoku, scared that she is starting to lose her memory.”
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9. Every number nestled once into each of the nine boxes, every box holding nine squares. Nine across, nine down. I must have been about nine years old when I first played sudoku. The game sat staring at me on the back of a kid’s menu in one of the only “sit down” restaurants in my small hometown. I was perplexed but intrigued, and after my mother explained the rules, I found it simple enough. I got to work with a blue crayon in hand; blue was my favorite color for the longest time. I always thought that pink was too girly, and blue had so many stories to tell…. In the ocean, in the sky, in my grandparent’s eyes. My grandfather had pale blue eyes, almost touching grey, while my grandmother’s were bright and somehow deep altogether. They could make anyone on the outside of their world envy how deeply they loved each other. I can only imagine looking through their blue eyes into the other’s, how simple they made it seem.
I’m trailing off again. That is why I’ve decided to pick up sudoku once more. It’s a logic game, something to get my mind working and churning. I feel I’m becoming too forgetful, my memory isn’t what it used to be. When I was in 3rd grade, I could recall every state and their capitol. I could watch a television show, and call out the actors from smaller roles they’d played years before. Melodies, quotes, even certain smells…. Off the cuff, I could tell you in exact detail where I was when I heard or experienced it for the first time. Do you know the looks you get when a certain scent hits your nose, and you causally mention that it smells exactly like your fourth grade classroom? A peculiar clean scent, with an almost sour note that, while it didn’t take away from the kind and patient teaching, is one that’s hard to lose memory of.
Though I suppose maybe I wasn’t always the best at remembering. I’d often forget to remove the chicken, or ground beef, or whatever else was meant to be dinner, from the freezer. The only elements I can easily name from the periodic table are Hydrogen, Helium, Lithium, Beryllium, and Boron because my sixth grade science teacher taught us “HEHELIBEBE”, a silly way to remember H, HE, LI, BE, B. I also was never able to find my place on a map, I’m still can’t. Around the time I first got my driver’s license, a friend and I were meant to take a road trip just to the next town over, but I took a wrong turn and the fun soon turned to panic. Eventually, after we made it home safely, much later than intended, we found humor in the situation and laughed all night.
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9. Only single digits, a few chosen numbers already sprinkled through to give a sort of roadmap to the solution. Of course, the answers lie tempting and beckoning from the bag of the catalog, supposing you chose to play with pen and paper, and not whatever app on which you can easily undo your moves. Did you know the game can actually be partially attributed to the French? It obviously wasn’t called sudoku, but the “magic number” game began to appear in the late 19th century newspapers. No watching ads for extra hints or paying $1.99 for unlimited redos. It even contained double digit numbers, although it was played differently. Modern sudoku has no true claimed founder, interestingly enough. The man who is likely to have created the game we know now is assumed to have done so anonymously. It was first published in 1979.
Sudoku didn’t make its way to Japan until 1984, but they hold credit for the name. The name originally was much longer, Sūji wa dokushin ni kagiru, meaning “each number is limited to single occurance”, also playing on the Japanese word for “unmarried person”, because of the single digit gameplay.
I’ve always been fascinated by numbers and their sequences. When I was younger, I’d watch the time on the microwave, waited to see the numbers align with my birthdate. I liked to find patterns in the license plates, matching the digits up to important dates or using simple math to make the numbers equal one of the others. I watched the odometer, and try to acknowledge every ten miles, just to see the mileage end in zero. I’m not sure I ever believed in angel numbers, but I often saw 4:44 on the clock.
Anyway, I suppose that’s what I like most about this little number game. Each one has a special place in order to solve the puzzle. Every problem has a solution, even if you have to think a little harder. I hope this is my solution, making my brain focus and stay sharp. I feel I’m becoming too forgetful. My memory isn’t what it used to be, and I just want to remember all the little moments.
