Might As Well Laugh As To Cry!

The joke is told about the three elderly ladies comparing their forgetfulness. One said she often would do things like stand at the refrigerator with the jar of mayonnaise in her hand but she couldn’t remember if she was taking it out or putting it back in. The second lady said that was really nothing because she often would find herself on the landing of the stairs but couldn’t remember whether she was going up or coming down. The third lady smiled broadly and said that she was thankful she still had really good memory, knock on wood, as she rapped the table three times with her knuckles, but then quickly added, “That must be door, excuse me while I go and answer it."

It’s funny but not so funny whenever it begins to happen to you. Some think any type of memory loss must mean they are headed for Alzheimer’s and they quickly become concerned. But there are plenty of reasons why you might forget something and let’s face it, one does not operate in their sixties like they did in their twenties. There was a time when I easily remembered maybe one hundred telephone numbers or more. Nowadays I sometimes have to check even a familiar number if I haven’t called it for a while.

Might as well laugh as to cry is what my granddad used to say. Not too long ago I discovered my cell phone was not in my shirt pocket. I became distressed and began looking all around for it. What could I have done with it? Okay, you guessed it, I just happened to be talking on it whenever I discovered it missing. Go ahead and laugh because I had a pretty good laugh myself. Might as well.

These medications I’ve been taking do have side affects but slowly but surely they have been becoming a little better. Here a few days ago I was bragging about how I was really feeling great and it just seemed that maybe I had finally mastered this adjustment process. Of course a few minutes later I figured out why I had not encountered any problems, my pills were still in my pocket. How did I deal with this embarrassing situation? I immediately told everyone what I had done so that we all could laugh together. Might as well.

I’m certainly not making fun of those whose memory lapses are connected to something much more serious, but I am making the case for recognizing that things will change over time and it doesn’t have to be the end of the world. I keep my daily planner with me now and it has all the pertinent telephone numbers recorded just in case I need to refer to them. I make more notes than I used to, and review them often during the day just to stay on top of things I need to get done.

When everything else fails and I can’t find my cell phone because I’m talking on it or I discover I’m feeling really good because I forgot to take my medicine, I laugh about it, and then tell someone else so they can laugh with me because when it is all said and done, might as well. …More later.