Why we love mysteries is no mystery—life is full of them. Every day is brimming with conundrums, problems, puzzles and dilemmas. Pondering life’s mysteries is just what we do as a species imbued with the capacity to see ourselves reflectively and in a larger context. That context is often daunting—big, alright, and more complex than we can ever fully grasp. You might think the enormity of the challenge we face each morning would send us scurrying back to bed, eyes shut tightly, covers pulled up over our heads. Jessica Huntington, the heroine in my novel, A DEAD HUSBAND, thinks about that as she wakes to the enigmas in her privileged, but fractured life. She struggles with life’s mysteries, but for the most part, doesn’t let them weigh her down—nor do we.

Humans are a game little species, daring to face down the mystery of navigating our mortality in a world fraught with joy and sorrow. Bold and sassy, we shout, “Bring it on!” Dangle a riddle in front of us and we’re like cats watching a string wriggle or a feather flutter: fascinated and held in suspense until we rear up on our hind legs and pounce on the solution! Scientists among us, amateur and professional alike, pose questions, create hypotheses and research everything. How do things work (or not work) the way they do? News broadcasters and talk show hosts ponder with us, urging us to look at what happened today. How did this happen? Why did he say this or why did she do that? And we ask ourselves: Omg, why on earth did I do this or say that—again?

Riddle-makers as well as riddle-solvers, we embellish the world around us, energetically creating new mysteries to entice and perplex. I’m not just talking about the mystery writers among us.. Comedians write jokes—tiny mysteries with a punch line—and we laugh uproariously (when we get them), tiny mystery solved! We watch game shows and “reality” TV, play video games, do crosswords and Sudoku.

One of our favorite mysteries is: who will win? We play, or more likely, watch sports. Millions, mesmerized by a line-up of large beefy men setting upon one another with a small ball of one kind or another, shriek for them to solve the mystery. It’s not just who will win, but how will this year’s team win the Super Bowl? Will the runner at the Boston Marathon set a new record or a diver in the Olympics work in one more half gainer before slicing cleanly into the water? We create the games, set up the rules, and then watch as the mystery unfolds and we get our answer.

Perhaps all of this mystery-creating is a form of exercise—working out our “ponder-this chops,” so that when we are faced with a new challenge, not of our making, we’re ready. Maybe all the rule-making and game-playing is a great act of hope that the universe is governed by rules that can make our fate more manageable—if we can only divine and live by those rules. Perhaps someday we will even outwit the limits of our own mortality—win the game of life!

If this is a fundamental character arc for members of our species, it underscores one of the biggest mysteries of all: the mystery of goodness. All the tender mercies and grand gestures we bestow on one another. Those are as mysterious as anything else we do, considering the existential context in which we humans must make do. Where the hell does our goodness come from? Whether it is natural or supernatural in origin, it is a remarkable thing to see. Perhaps that is the greatest reward from all our daily ponderings and pursuits: the goodness of mystery is, ultimately, what it reveals about the mystery of goodness.

Find out more about my mystery series at http://www.desertcitiesmystery.com