exquisite puzzle

I like to brag that in the few weeks after I got my Rubik’s cube for Christmas, I solved it twice daily. Within a few minutes, I usually bashfully admit that I cheat by looking at the solution guide. Most people are still slightly impressed, saying that the only way they’d ever solve a Rubik’s cube is to either remove and replace all the colored stickers, or to take the thing apart entirely. Lately though, I’ve been able to do most of it without the guide. Just enough to impress someone who might be watching. I haven’t done anything with it at all in at least two weeks though.

I went home this weekend, and took my cube with me, mainly so that I’d have something to occupy me in the car. I didn’t take the solution guide because… well honestly, I didn’t even think of it. I ended up being otherwise occupied in the car ride up–my cousin and I took turns driving. Last night, however, for some reason I was anxious, so I pulled out the cube, just to have something to do with my hands. I had hoped it would settle me.

With practically no effort, I solved the first face–the green face. With only one minor, easily reversible snafu, I solved the bottom two layers of the four side faces–red, yellow, orange, and white. Easily I solved the top “blue cross”. The next thing to do then, is line up the blue edge peices with the face they match. I suddenly found myself staring at the cube, utterly lost on what to do next. I had known everything until this point, and if i could get past this point, the only thing left was the corner pieces, which I knew that I knew how to do.

It occurred to me then that I had never learned how to solve the cube. All I did was memorize a series of patterns of turns, that no matter the starting position of the cube, would always get you to the solution. It was a stated fact in the solution guide that solving the cube should require much less effort than the printed solution. If you studied the puzzle, and took the time to learn the puzzle yourself, you should be able to do it with a lot less effort. A fact proved by the 15-second puzzle solvers. They don’t have lightening-fast hands. Even memorizing the known solution, the lengthy turn patterns take at least 2 minutes (giving the benefit of the doubt). I’ve yet to do it in less than 5.

This entry totally did not go where I wanted it to go. I originally intended for it to be a metaphor for life, and the importance of figuring things out for yourself, because there won’t always be a pattern to memorize. Ugh… I lost my train of thought. Bed time. Maybe I’ll pick this up later when I’m not as tired.

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