FORGET MEMORY BLOG

The long plane flight to Brussels gave me a long overdue chance to read/finish a couple of books, including Susan and John McFadden’s Aging Together:  Dementia, Friendship, and Flourishing Communities.

I’m a long time fan and friend to both John and Susan, and I have them both to thank for the development of my own ideas on dementia.  So reading this was a personal journey (watching our friendship and conversations over the years evolve into the printed word) and a professional treat (gasping at times at the beauty and solidity of their ideas/words).

The book is academically rigorous – incorporating research from fields of theology, psychology, sociology, history — and yet also inviting and readable.  It could be a text for grads, undergrads, or informed readers.  What any level of reader will walk away with is a deeper understanding of:

-the history and theory of self, community, and friendship

-the history and theory of the state/diagnosis of dementia

-personal stories/models of how families with dementia have negotiated the challenge of maintaining love and friendship

There were moments when their framing of the issue made lightbulbs go off…as in their discussion of the history of how “man” being created in the image of God has changed across time.  Pre-enlightenment, it was the BODY that was imagined as created in the image of God.  Thus leprosy was seen as an abomination.  Post-enlightenment, it was the MIND that was imagined to be created in the image of God.  Thus dementia is seen as the new leprosy.  We fear and distance ourselves from it at all costs.

Another moment was their careful analysis of the various types of friendship, and the realization that friendship has fallen victim to capitalism and been commodified.  The true rewards of friendship operate outside of the value/market exchange.

Finally, my favorite element of the book is their notion that the biggest challenge for people with family/friends with dementia comes at the moment when fear and compassion both flare up.  In my mind, this book is an effort to help coach us through that moment -to calm ourselves in the face of tremendous fears and to choose the path of compassion.

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Thanks to Kirsten Jacobs of Leading Age for bringing together an inspiring group of folks working in creative engagement for the Sat. Oct 15th 4.5 hour preconference session.

Kirk Murphy of Sandglass Theater in VT provided an overview of their project with Renya Larson and the folks at Holton House in Brattleboro.  They used the TimeSlips storytelling process to elicit imagination-based stories and then created a puppet theater piece inspired by the storytelling sessions.

Kelli Holsopple of Phoenix Theatre Ensemble in NYC led the group through the creation of stories and movements about the word “evolve,” and shared clips from the documentary Stages which follows an intergenerational theater-making process.

I talked about the Penelope Project as an attempt to infuse creative engagement into an entire care facility – encouraging ensemble/collaboration not just among the residents and an activities professional or visiting artist, but also among the entire staff, family, volunteers, and admin team.  We walked through a few of the creative discussions that were led by students and staff during the “data gathering” period, and then talked briefly about the play itself.

Finally, Michelle Pearson and Shula Strassfeld of the Dance Exchange led us through a series of engagements with a scrap of newspaper – movement, current events, and discussions (and then physical manifestations) of our reactions to the news, our own news, and what was missing from the news.   All along, they shared the stories of using this method in intergenerational settings as part of a MetLife grant to infuse creative engagement into long term care.

Questions that lingered among the group of nearly 40 attendees included 1) how do you approach an arts group to partner? 2) how do you fund these? 3) how do you get buy-in from your organization?

I sooo look forward to the UWM Create/Change Summer Institute now (June 24-28, 2012) – it’ll be an opportunity to explore all these issues and more, all taught in collaboration between a long term care partner, and arts partner and a university partner!

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It’s been a jam packed 5 days here in Maastricht, Netherlands for the meeting of the European Network in Aging Studies and the 7th International Symposium on Cultural Gerontology.  It has been an incredible experience to see aging from an international perspective, and to be among so many humanities and arts scholars.

There is some great work being done on using creativity in dementia care, including some on clowning and horticulture.  Lots of social theory.  Lots of reading representations of aging in film, magazines, novels, and plays.  I think my favorite paper was an analysis of the notes on 42 hours of meetings about client needs – looking at how decisions about care are reached.

I gave my first, at length presentation on the Penelope Project.  It was a challenge to try to describe it all in just 45 minutes…I was worried that my talk – all about arts practice – wouldn’t fit in with the conference.  But I now see it as a living practice of the concept of the relational self about which there is lots of discussion, but very little examples.

It also made me miss the team.  The crying handmaidens.  The choral members.  The students.  Rusty.  Joyce.  All the Sojourn gang…  I look forward to presenting the project WITH some of them next week in DC at Leading Age.

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