Saturday, January 26, 2008

Oh Joy!

Wet and windy driving conditions (North West of England), endless long strait roads over flat fens (Norfolk), my favourite service station temporally rendered a building site (southbound Westmorland Services) all pale into insignificance in the face of a FAST INTERNET CONNECTION. Oh Joy, indeed.

But the subject on my mind this evening is memory, short term memory and the loss of it which comes with advancing years. I visited an elderly woman this afternoon who struggled to remember what she had just said and what she wanted to say right now. This happens to the best of us however at a certain point in ones life I can see how very frightening this can be. The question I am left with now is how much we/society equate loss of short term memory with dementia, especially in the elderly. Just a thought, a thought with a ladle full of compassion along with it.

Many thanks to Chris and his wife in Preston Lancashire where I'm staying before going on to Manchester tomorrow for a day retreat in the center of town. Hopefully by the end of Sunday I'll be back in Northumberland again attempting to reconnect with tasks as yet not tackled. These involve activating long term memory, which I don't have a problem with!