Senior Moments

We’ve all had senior moments.  I think I had my first when I was about 15.  I needed something from the basement, and went down the stairs.  As I walked down my teen mind was thinking about a thousand matters all of which seemed important at that moment.  So when I reached the bottom of the steps naturally I turned and reached for …. What?  During my distractions walking down the steps I had forgotten what it was I went into the basement for in the first place.  And so I stood there a moment, trying to remember --- and couldn’t. 

All I could do was laugh at the silliness of the event:  a “senior moment” and trudge back up the stairs.

And now I am a senior. 

This morning, my many-years-a-Saturday-morning-breakfast friend sat down, as he commented on the weather outside.  We talked about our events of the past week; mine a variety of interesting visits and new readings and even some spiritual matters, and his, a variety of the same things he told me about last week.  He commented on the weather.  We talked about sports events and agreed the waitress was being a bit slow today with refilling our coffee cups.  

And he commented about the weather.

I noticed that my friend’s discussion topics had been getting much narrower of late, almost from the day he retired and sold his business.  It seemed some of the life had gone out of him, but no matter, he would always be a good friend.  He commented on the weather once again, and mentioned that he had missed his daily walk one day recently, because he had a test done at the hospital.  He seemed very concerned at missing his walk; I asked what kind of test he took.  “It was an MRI,” he explained.  They think I might have Alzheimer’s,” he said.  “They got me on some pills now.  A couple of weeks ago I lost a chunk of memory.  They don’t know if I’ll get it back or not,” he said.

I almost asked him what memories he had lost. 

It was a senior moment.

It wasn’t funny.