Education is what survives when what has been learnt has been forgotten – Albert Einstein 

Have you noticed that as you get older, your waistline begins approaching your nipples? It’s an unfortunate outcome of the ageing process, a weird and singularly unfortunate phenomenon that is apparent to everyone but the afflicted.   

Look at Dr M. He’s gotten there but he’s not bothered: he’s more interested in becoming PM. I don’t want to put too fine a point on it but it’s tiresome. He’s 98 and there are homes for people like that. 

But he’s lucid and seemingly all there which is amazing for a man approaching 100. Everyone should be so lucky. 

Only they’re not. Have you ever gone into a room and then forgotten why only to realise, for some reason, there’s a clue in the refrigerator?

But I digress. We weren’t talking about obesity, were we? No, we were contemplating memory loss, dementia, and that unspeakable evil, Alzheimer’s.  

Some classes of people, however, seem to be immune from these scourges. These would include creditors and very good liars. 

Even so, it’s a cheerless prospect. All of us have witnessed relatives or friends wither away from themselves, like a flame being slowly extinguished and it’s terrifying. In my case, it’s slightly more relevant as I have had a number of relatives exhibit these symptoms in their later years: it’s almost always in the genes. 

You are supposed to exercise – both body and mind. You are also supposed to sip coconut oil on the side. 

Exercising the mind is a trickier prospect. I once tried the New York Times crossword puzzle and promptly ran, screaming, into the night. Those are reserved for people of learning and reason, those associated with fine cigars and brandy snifters, and generally not associated with yokels who drink beer. 

To compensate, I’ve switched to the higher side of the lower ground, which is to say, I play free games owned by the New York Times Company. 

They pop up daily and I seriously look forward to them. No kidding! My wife also plays the same games religiously and, although she’s in the US now, we still compare daily scores, And, yes, she generally beats me but that is, as a US President put it, “neither here nor there.” 

The games are, respectively, Wordle, its Bahasa Indonesia variant Katapat (kata tepat or “precise word”) and Connections.

The first two are word gamers that sometimes fox but only because of choice. The third is a game to find the “connections” between words to form appropriate groups. It’s rarely straightforward and often crafty to the point of irritation. I’m not sure it prevents Alzheimer’s but it sure beats coconut oil.

Maybe we’re thinking too much, looking at this all wrong. Just maybe, having a good memory is overrated. Listen to Homer Simpson: “Everything looks bad if you remember it.” And if you have no regard for old Homer, here’s Albert  Schweitzer: “Happiness is nothing more than good heath and a bad memory.”

Finally, you have to be prepared and learn to spot the symptoms. George Burns has pinpointed four. First, you forget names; then, faces; then, you forget to pull your zipper up and finally…

…You forget to pull it down. 

ENDS