It's Not Dementia. It's ADD!

The coffee ran all over the counter because you forgot to put the pot back. The microwave is suddenly inscrutable, how did you ever know which buttons to push? You can’t find your keys. You sit down at the computer and can’t remember your password.. A word or a name won’t come to your lips. There’s an utterly unfair and terrifying blank but in a few moments the blank fills in and you carry on. These things happened when we were young too. But now we, a generation attuned to our well-being, rush to fear dementia. When you were young and let the coffee spill or forgot your keys or couldn’t remember a name, it was cool. Mighta had a little buzz on, mighta had the kids running all over the house, mighta had a lot going on. Mighta had a long-standing undiagnosed attention deficit disorder. Just a thought.

Remember when ADD wasn’t a buzzword, when the kid in the class who had it was just the smart kid or the bad kid or the teacher’s pet, but not a classified student entitled to all kinds of accommodations and modifications and medications? Well those were our days. We made it through. We dealt with the stimuli - the emerging technologies - television waves, xrays, microwaves, video games, headsets and earphones and gym equipment that now includes (my favorite) Whole Body Vibration equipment. We’re not senile, we’re just ADD for crying out loud! Why wouldn’t we be?

When your body is starting to go and your face is pretty much gone, the path in the wood diverges and you have to choose. Are you going to fight against time and cling to your youth or are you going to segue into the life of the mind and the spirit, those parts of you that are not only intact but still developing?
I am not “letting myself go” by a longshot, but I am calm about the encroaching void. Each day is a gift – I laugh all day long, and not always like a fool. We have to lay down our childish ways – we saw through a glass darkly but will soon see face to face- I want to be sober and upright and clear-headed as possible as I observe the life and the lives unfolding around me. I definitely want to pay attention.