Memory …

Memory ain’t what it used to be. At least mine isn’t, but I haven’t worked on maintaining it much lately either. It’s a muscle that can be strengthened, but it’s also a bodily function that starts going downhill on its own. Regardless, I’m now a bit more than a year into retirement, and, if the proliferation of “notes” (e.g. reminders) stored in my I-Phone’s Notes App are any indication, my memory increasingly relies on a crutch. I haven’t written much here on Beacons for the past several years–just haven’t been motivated–but preserving memories might prove to be the impetus needed to get me going again.

An aside … once I retired, copious amounts of idle time were suddenly available. One time sink that I discovered this past year is the app named TikTok. If you indulge in social media, think of TIkTok as a video version of Twitter–short videos by creators on topics of every stripe, ranging from wilderness survival, to cooking, cute cows, practical jokes, daring feats of prowess, natural beauty, humor … you name it and it’s on TikTok. Anyway, and more relevant to this post, I follow “dsalnorcal” (aka Dan Salinger, a California attorney) who, along with his brother Mark, takes care of his 90-year old father Ed. Ed is physically healthy but suffers from severe, short-term memory loss and needs constant assurance and multiple daily reminders that he has a place to live (Ed lives with his kids and splits time between Dan’s and Mark’s homes), that his needs are being taken care of and he has money in the bank. Ed is fortunate to have a loving family, but it’s both painful and humorous to watch everyone coach him over and over, again and again on the basics of his life … who is who, what is what, etc. Ed’s life is a study in complete memory loss.

I am not anticipating the onset of such a severe memory condition (at least not for a few years), but it occurred to me that this site could serve to help me remember a few things that it will be easy to forget over time. Specifically, there are two posts that I’m thinking about using for documentation. They include: books I’ve read and trips I’ve taken (since retirement). I will elaborate later, but suffice it to say, that creating these lists will aide my memory precisely where it is apt to fade and disappear. I realize that posts like this do not approach creative thought and original thinking, but it’s starting to dawn on me that simply preserving some memories may be a priority that should not be ignored.

“Every man’s memory is his private literature.”
― Aldous Huxley