(4) Ruth Housman , July 14, 2009

Re Member ing

There's something deep about memory the word, containing as it does, the Hebrew letter MEM. We are all sailing in the current of life, and time itself seems to flow around us. We can stop time with memory and it's really important, I think, in agreement, to remember those things that we are "committed to", those things that bring us into a kind of memory of who we are and why we are here, a re member ing. There is so much that could be said about memory. REM sleep for example, standing for rapid eye movements, strangely contains the beginnings of the word REMEMBER. I am thinking this is not random, namely the alchemy we find within words themselves. I do believe that this story is about LOVE and that remembering brings us into contact with identity because it's in relation to each others, through time, that we also remember our respective stories. It is terrifying to lose one's memory, particularly of that identity that connects us to each other and so it is particularly poignant to work with those who have Alzheimer's and other dementing problems. I think the only answer to this is the human touch and also, it's very interesting, as others have noted, that music helps us remember and it is music, that also moves those, frequently, whose memories have gone south.

(3) Ashley Bell , July 14, 2009

Memory Mitzvah

I've assisted residents living with dementia to lay tefillin & one thing that has struck me that with their decline in relation to procedural memory what remains intact is their ability to kiss the ballit, unfurl the tefillin respectfully & make the initial steps unassisted when fastening the seven circuits around their arm. These are dementia residents who can not initiate for themselves the awareness of needing to pick up a spoon to eat their breakfast cereal but can manage to start the intricate process of prayer -- remembering the Shema Y'Israel with no prompting, reciting the excerpt of Deutronomy that lays inside the ballit that commands them to pray & can tell you why laying tefillin during the entirety of Pesach is not permitted/necessary. I was told once that an old Jewish man living with dementia shouldn't really be laying tefillin as he can not mindfully connect to God & the mitzvah is redundant. I know better....

(2) malka , July 13, 2009

Songs are really easy to remember. A good way to learn is to sing. What happens though is sometimes we don't remember unless we sing it :) That's interesting about the acronyms RPAT, and SRVP

(1) Rosen , July 13, 2009

memory

I happen to have a very good long-term memory where I can remember what people say, even years later. Therefore, I consider myself an excellent auditory learner. Now, I had a tutor once who suggested that it is better to remember than memorize. Perhaps "memorizing" can take a lot more work than remembering. Hopefully aging and bad memory doesn't have to come with the territory, because as we grow older, we generally get wiser, depending on our willingness to learn.