What's Your Strategy for De-Stressing? We All Need a Few in Addition to Prayer!

My favorite sleuth is Agatha Christie's Hercule Poirot played by David Suchet!

Strange and stressful times we live in, eh? How do you de-stress amid crises, besides prayer, the sacraments, and spiritual reading? What’s your prescription for maintaining your equilibrium? When I need a respite, a total break from the bad news, I’d rather turn to a puzzle than the boob tube: jigsaw puzzles, crossword puzzles, logic puzzles, cryptograms, sudokus, mazes – brain exercises of all kinds. Instead of fanning the flames of anxiety with one more news report on the coronavirus, or the riots, or Pope Francis’ latest crazy statement, I brew a cup of tea and turn to a puzzle.

As a teenager, I read books every spare moment and particularly enjoyed murder mysteries. I think I read almost every mystery by Agatha Christie, Arthur Conan Doyle, Dorothy Sayers, Ellery Queen, and G.K. Chesterton. How I love Chesterton’s beloved little priest, Fr. Brown! His keen understanding of human nature and his kindness to all, even criminals, inspired me. Perhaps I like mysteries because they are so much like puzzles; although I’m never much of a sleuth. I’m more like Sherlock’s Watson, or Poirot’s Hastings, or the blockhead detectives schooled by Jane Marple.

Time Out for a Birthday...

What a week! Time out for something more cheerful than rioting Muslims who hate America.

So let's talk about imaginary murder and mayhem instead - as in classical detective stories. Because today is Columbo's birthday. Peter Falk, the New York actor from Ossining, NY who played the detective in the rumpled trenchcoat with the (often unlit) cigar clenched in his teeth would have been 85 today. As a mystery fan, I admired the low key detective who's absent-minded manner fooled so many criminals into thinking they were up against a numbskull.

So, in honor of Peter Falk, I plan to watch a Columbo episode tonight and lift a glass of something in toast to a great actor who is sorely missed by this fan. The Columbo stories were clean with no explicit sex and little, if any, on-screen violence. They were simply old fashioned fun whodunits!

I miss Peter Falk and pray he's exploring the highways of heaven in that beat up old jalopy taking his namesake along for a ride. Rest in peace, Pete.

P.S. Funny thing - Agatha Christie's birthday was yesterday. She created some of my other favorite detectives, i.e., Hercule Poirot, beautifully portrayed by another splendid actor, David Souchet, and  the consummate Miss Jane Marple played by Joan Hickson. Hickson was Agatha Christie's personal choice to play her delightful spinster from St. Mary Mead. Now there was an author who knew her characters and how they should be played. Rest in peace Dame Agatha.