Why am I here?

No, this isn't a great religious or philosophical question. It's what I sometimes say when I've just entered a room, "Now, why am I here?" In the few minutes it took to walk to the room, I've forgotten why I wanted to go there. As I've aged, I don't think these types of things are happening more often - I just worry more about them more. I wonder if I'm starting to get senile. I'll forget someone's name that I've known for years. I'll forget that I left the kettle on the stove heating water for tea or I'll put a box with cables and electronics in our basement, forget I put it there and blame my wife for throwing it away. I just chalk it up to getting older.

I heard a very interesting story on National Public Radio on the way into work this morning. It was encouraging in that it seems that research is showing that yes, some things decline in our brain as we age but some things actually get better. And we can help our brain out. The radio story, "The Grown-Up Brain: Sharper Than Once Thought", was an interview with Barbara Strauch who has written a book titled The Secret Life of The Grown-up Brain. In the book, she tells how scientists point out that while our brain may slow down as we age (like the rest of our body) it doesn't have to be an inevitable decline. There are things we can do to improve ourselves. And part of what seems to be forgetfulness is really just our being distracted because, after all, we have more on our minds now than we used to. When we were young, we didn't have to worry about our spouse, our children, our house and our jobs. We were lucky if we had one or more of those things.

On a blog I read, the author was writing about talking to himself and how it can be embarrassing. I wrote a comment to admit that I also talk to myself but part of the reason I do it is so that I will hear my own thoughts. That way, my thought is not only in my mind where it originated but now, since I just heard myself say it, it is in that other place in my brain reserved for things I've heard someone say. Right there I've doubled my chance of remembering the thought.