[If you received this via email, may I suggest that you click on the title right above this line, which will take you to the website version? The formatting (especially of pictures) works a lot better on the website than in email]
Recently, I’ve had a
bunch of those “I wish I weren’t getting old” moments. Small things, mostly.
Wondering whether the next car I buy will be my last. Noticing, again,
limitations on my activities. Actually completing one of those online
questionnaires that tell you your personal expected age span. Finding myself
saying (out loud or silently) the things I thought only cranky old ladies said
… which pretty much puts me in the class of cranky old ladies. None of this is
dramatic stuff, but collectively, moments like these can get me in a bad spot
about aging, a place I really prefer not to be. And usually, I’m not. Usually,
I’m quite content with my status as an old woman. I realize that I’ve had and
continue to have a good, full, varied life—with its wrinkles, to be sure (no
pun intended), but very good on balance. But sometimes that part slips my mind.
So I was really pleased when I came across two articles that
reminded me of some of the "gifts" of aging—specifically, of aging brains (like
mine). I suspect I’m not the only person who sometimes grumbles to myself about
the rapidly passing years, so I thought I’d pass these along as an antidote.
After all, it’s spring(ish)! The birds are singing and making babies in the
tree outside my study (well, they were right before I took the picture below …. trust me), and the trees are all abloom along my walks.
It’s a good time for some inspiring reading!
The second article,
“The Older Mind May Just Be a Fuller Mind,” was equally uplifting. Now, I am aware, as many of my friends are, of having
more trouble finding information that I thought was well learned and neatly
stored in my brain. Sometimes it’s words or names, sometimes it’s locations or
travel routes. Often it’s whole ideas (“Now, how did that splash-protection shield
for my garden work last year?”). The standard reaction to these experiences is
to label them as “senior moments”—a sort of quasi-flippant way to dismiss them
and move on. But behind the chuckle is often, at least for me, an “oh, no”
moment (“Is this evidence of old-age cognitive slowing?”). But this article
gave me a whole new frame. It seems that recent research suggests that what
looks like forgetfulness may just be a matter of data overload. Older people
have far more experiences to sift through, so finding the particular word or
thought can be more challenging. Of course!
This concept
reminds me of old-time library card catalogs—row upon row of little wooden
drawers filled with small cards, all organized alphabetically by title (one set
of drawers) and by author (another set). No wonder we can’t immediately come up
with the word for rubber boots!
And here’s another
fascinating part of this research. It seems that most studies of cognitive
functioning use value-neutral words—they do this intentionally so that the
emotional associations of a word don’t bias whether it’s recalled or not. But
it turns out that as people age, their associations become increasingly
positive. Which is a good thing, in
my book. Ask me about happy times, and I can generate more words to describe
those times than I can if you ask me to recall bad times. It’s called “the
age-related positivity effect”—so how can I not feel positive about it?
It’s good for me to
have things like this tap me on the shoulder occasionally, because plenty of
things in our culture tell us that all the really good stuff belongs to the
young, and aging is just a slide into boredom and disengagement. I know better,
and I’m grateful for reminders like these.
After all, with so
much information to sift through and such nuanced thinking to deal with, these things
can easily slip my mind.
© Janis Bohan, 2010-2014. Use
of this content is welcome with attribution and a link to the post.
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