Long Ago Yesterday

One of the ironic phenomena about aging is how we have easy access to events decades back but can’t remember what we did yesterday, much less an hour ago…. or even why I am writing this. Yesterday’s conversation remains out of reach in a different precinct of my brain, from the words I managed in the spelling bee as the last one standing, eighty years ago.

Our short-term memory loss is the subject of two of my favorite jokes. I’ll only mention the punch line to one: So, where’s the toast? The full joke is available on request. As time goes on it has become more prophetic than funny.

Certainly, memory loss is nothing to laugh at. I'm not there yet but some friends may be close. While forgetfulness seems to accompany aging the move from annoyance to anguish is to be dreaded. It could arrive on cat's feet when a tipping point is crossed between nuisance and dysfunction.

Perhaps the only remedy is to stay close; we need each other for loving support and to help exercise the muscle of recall, both proximate and distant. Of course, it could be said there is much to be unremembered about today’s world in upheaval. It’s tempting to take refuge in those glory days seventy or eighty years ago. We embellish them with every return and why not? It is our movie and there are probably no eye witnesses around to refute our account.

If yesterday’s lunch or phone call got lost in the clutter, perhaps one compensatory move is to try for less input, less clutter. The tsunami of content coming at us from social media requires an enormous resistance in order to simplify our lives. I wonder if we’d have an easier time of it in a Zen monastery.

Another suggestion is to take a look at the side effects of our prescription meds. This may be more easily said than done given our infirmities in these twilight years.

Google says to eat well and exercise which is the panacea for everything that ails us. I suppose it keeps the blood moving north to the grey matter. Aside from those nostrums are the usual array of nutritional supplements ranging from derivatives of jellyfish to lion’s mane mushrooms. I have ingrained skepticism about such products which aren’t subject to FDA scrutiny but are known to lighten the wallet.

I have no wise, overarching solution. Sometimes I write just to find out what I have to say. Even if it ain’t much at least it keeps my synapses doing their aerobics. And maybe next time I'll remember where I parked my car at Costco.