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Discussion » Statements » Rosie's Corner » Agility of mind or body? Which do you hope lasts longest? Why?

Agility of mind or body? Which do you hope lasts longest? Why?

Posted - January 22, 2019

Responses


  • 10449

    I hope they last evenly.

    I have seen examples of both extremes - 

    I knew a lady who was very health conscious all her life - proper diet, lots of exercise, and such.  As she neared 100, her mind "died" (she was gone) but her body was so healthy that it kept going ... and going ... and going.  Her body finally joined her mind many months later (her son was at her side every day).

    I knew a man who was a professor.  Extremely intelligent.  He knew several different languages, taught English to Japanese students, excessively book learned (had a massive library).  Yet just after he retired his mind went (dementia).  It got so bad that he even forgot how to go to the bathroom.  He finally died of neglect in a local nursing home on a christmas eve (all alone).



      January 22, 2019 10:46 AM MST
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  • damn
      January 22, 2019 11:03 AM MST
    1

  • 113301
    I think it may be related to how one has lived one's life. Mostly cerebral or mostly physical? An athlete would probably want his body to stay fit. Someone who dwells in the land of ideas and fantasy and random possibilities would be nothing without her or his mind/brain functioning as it always did. Being dependent on others would not be my choice. Either physically or intellectually. I fear having my mind go away somewhere to a place where I cannot access it ever again. Of course if that happened I wouldn't know. Ideally we stay fit as a fiddle physically and mentally till the day we die. How often does "ideally" exist in our realities? Thank you for your thoughtful though very sad reply. The sad is not your fault. You are just reporting a reality you have experienced second hand. SIGH.
      January 22, 2019 11:16 AM MST
    1

  • 19942
    What a terrible end to his life.  The small comfort is that with dementia, people have no idea how bad things are.
      January 22, 2019 1:05 PM MST
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  • 19942

    I hope agility of mind lasts longer.  I can have quality of life with an uncooperative body, but there is no quality of life with a mind that doesn't work.

      January 22, 2019 1:07 PM MST
    1