The NYT’s Science Section featured an interesting article today about how memory loss associated with aging might actually be recast as a widening of the attention/focus to better synthesize information rather than focus on details. This, the article tells us, is another way to define wisdom.
Might this also be true of other “losses” associated with age? Of mobility? Of vision? Of hearing? Of visual “sex” appeal? Those are rhetorical questions…
Anne,
When I was interviewing one of my friends with dementia for my book on living with early stage memory loss, we talked about the enhanced creativity that many people with memory loss experience. She asked a great question:
“Is Alzheimer’s really a disease or is it an evolutional step?”
Mona Johnson
The Tangled Neuron