Last week after class, just as I was approaching the bus, I was given a simple Rubik’s cube, an 8 block one.  The children waiting for the bus were excited about it, so I handed it to them.  They played with it the whole ride home.  I had given a cube having six distinct colors, one per face, and I received a cube having multicolored sides.  In case I did not have enough frustration, living in discord with the ants and all, I had this new puzzle to work.

I set it on my desk and looked at it now and then.  I thought of a young boy in Iowa who delights in this puzzle, and can quickly solve it, no matter how many blocks are involved. I wondered what was required to do that.  I thought of going online to find the clues, but decided to try on my own first.  Since 1974, when this puzzle was invented, I have never solved it, though I have tried.  Gradually I realized that one must look at it from all angles, as it were.  You can’t just try to get all the blue, for example, on one side, you have to arrange the four blue faces in the way that the other sides line up also.

I’m pleased to report that last night, sitting in the clean bed in the clean room in apartment 201, that I finished solving the cube.  It’s a small thing in my daily life, but it meant that I can still enjoy a puzzle. It’s a small thing in my China experience, but it meant that I still can focus and find a solution.  It’s a small thing in view of eternity, but for me it meant that everything will be solved eventually, by the one who can see all the sides at once.