exactly

last night while lounging in my hotel room after a little treadmill work in the gym, i flipped through the march issue of san fran mag to find a really interesting article about the work being done to prevent memory issues as we age. the author, one gordy slack said something that hit pretty close to home (except of course for the kissing a girl part).

"i'm not afraid of a falling butt, thinning hair, and lengthening teeth. what wakes me up in a cold sweat is the fear of losing the titles of my favorite movies and books, of forgetting the name of the first girl i kissed on the way to san jose. i dread the prospect of losing myself."

i concur gordy. since having lost a grandfather to parkinson's and a grandmother to alzheimer's, a pebble of thought has been planted in the back corner of my mind and it was nice to hear that pebble's contents echoed by someone else (isn't it always?).

gordy then lays out the more surprising part of the article: believe it or not, we begin to lose the powers of our attention and memory at around age 30.

great. thanks gordy. i just turned 30. honestly i thought i had a good 'nother 20 years before i needed to really worry about it.

luckily the gordsters gives us some hope for prevention (much needed after the age 30 bombshell) in the form of a list of of tips to keep our minds humming at a steady pace:

Exercise (still looking for a way to have someone else do this for me)

Eat well (second verse same as the first)

Challenge yourself and make it fun (i've got this one covered with the crosswords, thank god)

Relax (hmmm...that's gonna take some work, but if i have to, i have to. can someone please get meadowood spa on the horn?)

Take off your shoes (yes, that's right. apparently having an intimate connection to the earth and our surroundings helps us out. thank god i just got my tetanus).

now the trick is to just remember it.