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January 19, 2007
The Nose Knows But The Brain Forgot
As all mature mothers know, memory loss is an occupational hazard. We blame it on menopause, low estrogen levels and stress. Today I ran into a closed door in the dark. Why? Because I forgot I had shut the door moments before. You see, I did not want to awaken my sleeping husband by turning on the bathroom light, so I quietly shut the door. Once inside the bathroom, I found that I miraculously did not need the light thanks to 50+ years of toilet training. I washed my hands, and then proceed to walk into the door – nose first. And it wasn’t quiet. Oh no, I hit that door with a loud, hard thud. Swollen nose and black eyes proved the force with which I hit the door. “If you had put up your arms and walked slowly in the dark towards the door, you would not have hurt yourself,” my kind husband offered. But extending my arms and walking slowly toward the door would mean that I remembered that the door was shut in the first place!
Although I am the only one going through menopause in this household, I am not the only one with short-term memory loss. My Swiss-cheese-brain 17-year-old son paid $9.00 in late fees for three library books that he straightened, moved, and dusted for two months every time he was asked to clean his room. Yet he never once thought: Hey, these need to be returned. Last week my husband forgot one of the children in our carpool. Once home he made the 40 minute round trip back to the school to pick up the stranded child. “I totally spaced” he exclaimed.
According to Dr. Andrew Weil, blueberries are a good memory food. Apparently “a blueberry-rich diet actually reversed short-term memory loss in aging rats.” I plan to buy an entire case for my family. Blueberries, three meals a day. Blueberry pancakes, blueberry sandwiches, blueberry burgers. The trouble with eating all those blueberries is that even if I regain some of my memory, I'm still an aging rat, I mean, woman.
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