Funny, my 15-yr old walked into the kitchen the other day and groaned - he'd forgotten what he'd come downstairs for. He blamed it on the doorway - I laughed and told him there was a brain-eraser installed in it, works like the scanner at the airport. Not reversible - he walked back through it, didn't help. But went back upstairs, I yelled at him that it must be the stairs, I usually remember what it was I was about to do/get as soon as I get back upstairs. Nice to see it's not just us "old" people!

Congrats on turning 50 - I did too, not long ago. But I am finding a loss of upper body strength and more joint problems/stiffness (over the past 2-5 years though, not the past few months).

Hi there..., new to posting here.
Thanks for your critique. I will certainly look for this book. I believe in the "doorway" theory. The thought you had in one room, doesn't follow you, or come with you, when you enter another room. Going back to where you were, retrieves it. That's pretty interesting.

Thanks for those interesting facts.
As a senior citizen......wish that had a nicer connotation......I find that I am offended by the assumption that my generation is rapidly coursing toward senility.
In my opinion we are the cutting edge of the "new agers" meaning that we are teaching the world what it really is to age with our brains.

And I wish the media would STOP referring to anyone over 60 as "elderly".
Seriously !!

I'm 77 now--78 this summer--and my 50th birthday was the only one I've ever minded. I really don't know why. I've spent the intervening years telling other women that after you turn 50 you can do as you like because you just don't care anymore. Imagine my surprise when I read that that really does happen because as estrogen decreases, testosterone takes over; and we all know that men never did care!

Interesting book review, Lemon.

Here is a coincidence that struck my interest. Just this past weekend I heard a program from the City Arts and Lectures series on our public radio station with a researcher from Stanford named Laura Carstensen. She has written a similar book called A Long Bright Future. Her focus seemed to begin at age 65 onward, but like the author Lemonhead reviewed, Carensten also said that the single most important thing a person could do to preserve brain function was exercise. (She also mentioned not smoking and some other things one could do.) How funny that we both ran across different authors addressing the same topic at the same time! Perhaps not so funny. Likely there is a lot of interest in the topic these days.

Rosefolly

This post was edited by rosefolly on Fri, Mar 7, 14 at 10:49

Carolyn....very interesting.
I've long noted that women become more like men as they age in terms of being able to take a stand logically and powerfully.
And men become more like women ( with less testosterone and thus more estrogen dominance ) and become whiny and b*tchy !!
Seriously !

I thought I'd post a quote that listed the other longevity-in-good-condition behaviors. If we're going to live a long time, we want to do it in the best way possible.

Dr Carstensen said that we should embrace by age 50 seven behaviors that:

âÂÂserve as excellent predictors of well-being after age 70. They are not smoking, not abusing alcohol, getting regular exercise, maintaining one's weight, having a stable marriage, an education, and good coping mechanisms for dealing with life's troubles.âÂÂ

She also mentioned education as a predictor of aging well in her talk. She did not mention money, but I did wonder to myself if rich, poorly educated people better or worse than well educated, poor people, since both do exist. My mind is of the wondering, wandering sort.

This post was edited by rosefolly on Fri, Mar 7, 14 at 10:53

Liz, well done! I concur about the need to keep on exercising. I am a firm believer in "use it or lose it." Now that I have moved to downtown Charleston, SC, I gave up my car and walk everywhere or ride my bicycle in the city. Now, on a day I can't do either, I just don't feel right.

I think it's a pity that in general, in America, the youth culture seems to predominate, in all areas. I found different values the year I lived in France. e.g. to be " une femme d'une certaine age" seemed a desireable thing.

Memory is a curious thing: I still wonder why I can't tell you what I had for breakfast yesterday, but can recall all the words to key songs I loved as a teen-ager.

Mary, you had less stuff cluttering up your brain when you were a teen; and, after all, what does it matter what one has for breakfast?

Funny story, my mother developed Lewy Bodies disease late in life. We took her to the University of Kentucky Geriatric Research Department to see what was going on. They interviewed us as a family and then took her separately to test her. She told us what she remembered of the questions she was asked, and one of them was what she had for breakfast. I asked her if she remembered, and she said, "No, I just made up some stuff."

Carolyn, I think I would have simply loved your mother!

Thanks, Rosefolly. She was wonderful. I feel so sorry for the people who haven't had the benefits of good mothering. It was such a shock to me when I was young and first encountered stories of family disharmony.

Carolyn, would you be willing to post again that wonderful poem "I Had a Mother Who Read to Me" ?

"I have always imagined that paradise will be a kind of library." ��" Jorge Luis Borges
"Once you learn to read, you will be forever free." ��" Frederick Douglass
"The things I want to know are in books. My best friend is the man who'll get me a book I [haven't] read." ��" Abraham Lincoln
"So please, oh PLEASE, we beg, we pray, go throw your TV set away. And in its place you can install, a lovely bookshelf on the wall." ��" Roald Dahl
"Children are made readers on the laps of their parents." ��" Emilie Buchwald
"Outside of a dog, a book is a man's best friend. Inside of a dog, it's too dark to read." ��" Groucho Marx
"I used to walk to school with my nose buried in a book." ��" Coolio
"The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more you learn, the more places you'll go." ��" Dr. Seuss
"Wear the old coat and buy the new book." ��" Austin Phelps
"You may have tangible wealth untold. Caskets of jewels and coffers of gold. Richer than I you can never be ��" I had a mother who read to me." ��" Strickland Gillilan
"The man who does not read good books is no better than the man who can't." ��" Mark Twain
"To learn to read is to light a fire; every syllable that is spelled out is a spark." ��" Victor Hugo, Les Miserables
"Oh, magic hour, when a child first knows she can read printed words!" ��" A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, 1943
"There is more treasure in books than in all the pirate's loot on Treasure Island." ��" Walt Disney
"Never trust anyone who has not brought a book with them." ��" Lemony Snicket
"A book is like a garden, carried in the pocket." ��" Chinese Proverb
"You know youâÂÂve read a good book when you turn the last page and feel a little as if you have lost a friend." ��" Paul Sweeney
"There is no substitute for books in the life of a child." ��" May Ellen Chase
"Today a reader, tomorrow a leader." ��" Margaret Fuller
"A book is a gift you can open again and again." ��" Garrison Keillor
"There is no frigate like a book, to take us lands away" ��" Emily Dickinson
"When I say to a parent, "read to a child", I don't want it to sound like medicine. I want it to sound like chocolate. " ��" Mem Fox
"Fill your house with stacks of books, in all the crannies and all the nooks." ��" Dr. Seuss
"I'm wondering what to read next." ��" Matilda, Roald Dahl
"Reading should not be presented to children as a chore or duty. It should be offered to them as a precious gift."...

I'm glad to, Mary. Here it is.

THE READING MOTHER

I had a mother who read to me,
Sagas of pirates who scoured the sea,
Cutlasses clenched in their yellow teeth,
âÂÂBlackbirdsâ stowed in the hold beneath.

I had a mother who read me lays,
Of ancient and gallant and golden days.
Stories of Marmion and Ivanhoe,
Which every boy has a right to know.

I had a mother who read me things,
That wholesome life to the boy heart brings
Stories that stir with an upward touch,
Oh, that each mother of boys were such!

You may have tangible wealth untold;
Caskets of jewels and coffers of gold,
Richer than I, you can never be.
I had a mother who read to me.

Strickland Gillilan

Thanks, Carolyn. I think it's one of the most beautiful poems I've ever read. And so true!

Thanks for the review, Lemonhead. I started reading this book a while ago, but other things (and books) intruded. Guess I should finish it.

I have always found it difficult to remember names and I have always been the type who forgets why I went from one room to the next, so there isn't much difference between me now (mid-forties) and at 20 in that respect. I do do find I need to put more effort into learning things than I used to (but I also retain the learning better), I am better at controlling my emotions and I am also much more reasonable and less prone to arguing than I used to be. When I was 20, things were either black or white, and I would argue endlessly about them, but now I see the shades of grey in-between and often don't bother to argue about things (even when I know I am right).

(I also don't give a [insert expletive] what people, especially strangers, think of me and I've stopped trying to please everyone - I wonder if that also comes with cerebral maturity?)

Netla -

I think that the "not caring so much about others' opinions" does become a bigger part of life as you mature. Perhaps we learn not to care so much as we realize really how unimportant receiving affirmation or approval from others is in the big scheme of life?