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Showing posts with the label remembrance

Life Tells You About Age

You know you're getting older when... You frequently see commercials featuring a middle-aged woman walking around with a cartoon bladder and selling some medication to help with peeing too often.  Indeed, almost every bodily organ has a cartoon avatar helping pitch some medication to fix it.  Look them up! These meds are expensive!  Other medications about sleeping better come one after another. Pillows and snoring too! You get by mail ads from the Neptune society - featuring cremation specials.  You get multiple requests for getting cash from a reverse mortgage. Your kids call you just checking to see if you answer the phone. You find yourself with aches and pain in places you never knew had nerve endings. You remember you forgot something important, but can't recall what it is. You keep a spare key to the house in a hidden place, because you know you'll need it any day now. You've seen clothing styles come and go, sometimes three times. More items to come

On Memory - Part I, The Basics

Imagine your mind has a built in search engine, not unlike Bing or Google. Wouldn't that be great? You just set it to work and presto, up comes a number of hits on whatever you search. Guess what, it does! The number of hits is small in most cases, large in others, but significantly null in all too many, especially for searches distant in time. Like all search engines, your engine has limitations of capacity. This implies you have lots of information, carefully filed away in your brain, but essentially inaccessible. It has become unsearchable and unremembered. Google, et .al., can merely add more servers to increase capacity. You cannot. The question we pose here is: how can we find this "lost" information. The method we propose is called relational recall . Sounds mysterious?  It really isn't.  But, this is something the digital search engines cannot do. As such, they are limited to text searches. They cannot feel what you feel much less know what you feel or desir

On Aging – Part II, Humor

Humor is a near unique aspect of humans that leaves untouched just about every endeavor, every aspiration, and every desperation we have.   Not the least of these is aging.   While in Part I of this note on aging we reflected on the majesty and melancholy of aging, here we look at the humor.   Most speak to some aspect of youth when viewed from the lens of age.   Each speaks for itself, comments are not needed.    There are hundreds of published quotes online and in print.   Selected here are some of the very funny ones from notable people - all current graduates of that select club.         The older I get, the better I was. - Henry Louis Mencken     Do not regret growing old; many are denied the privilege. - Ogden Nash     Forty is the old age of youth; fifty is the youth of old age. - Victor Hugo       It's paradoxical that the idea of living a long life appeals to everyone, but the idea of getting old doesn't appeal to anyone. - Andy Rooney     You don't st

On Aging – Part I

I am what I am. I work out, I travel, I write, I teach and research, do a lot of computing, and importantly I continually plan for the future.  But for many, many years I do recall thinking about aging, its processes, and watching others age. Aging has been on my mind; I guess it’s always been on my mind. A good question is “How do we age?” How about bitterly, regretfully, remorsefully, disgustingly, gracefully, joyfully, disappointingly, philosophically, or wisely? Millions upon millions, blessed with the arrival of old age, have penned their thoughts, their ideas, and their wisdom upon aging. In this note we take up sayings and aphorisms on growing old from many luminaries past and present, then add commentaries. There are numerous categories about aging. They range across (a) Physical aspects (conditioning and fitness, aches and pains, activity), (b) Mental aspects (memory, intelligence, interests, sense of humor), (c) Financial (costs), (d) Death (preparation, last will), and R

It is Important to Remember...

The other day I was feeling like nothing was happening, that I'm not getting anywhere, and  there were few prospects.  Then it occurred to me that I have done a lot of things and I shouldn't forget it.  The spark that was is still there.  I thought to write it down.  And then I added a few more. It is important to remember ... All you have achieved. What is not important. What is important. Your goals, and to form new ones. Your friends; they are the shadows of your personality. Your childhood; all you are is rooted there. Your parents; their signature is a goodly part of you. It is important to.. Enjoy living. Exercise your mind and body. Love much; hate not too much. Help out, when you can. Have favorite things. Honor and appreciate your friends. Forget grudges, even if you can't forgive them. Drive on calmly, despite all the morons on the road. Keep your tank full. Listen to good music. Know a few really good jokes. Read a lot in wide venues.