I understand that aging is inevitable but as this process continues in my case I’ve become increasingly aware that humans do indeed grow too soon old and too late smart (old Dutch saying). I mean it just seems to be a person’s lot in life that when they finally gather enough experience and live long enough to actually learn from those experiences, even the bad ones, by the time we finally learn enough to smarten up, we find ourselves too old to remember what we learned in the first place.

For example, take this poor young lady in the image here:

Now I recognize this poor thing. The name of the sculpture I mean. Not only that but I absolutely know that I knew the name of the artist who sculpted her as well. It’s just one of those things I never thought I’d forget—everyone has those types of unique memories, right? But when I ran across the image of this unfortunate young woman the other day (who “has her own face” as it were) these two aforementioned facts of knowledge properly cantered out from my past memories to the virtual tip of my tongue but completely refused to move any farther. I sat looking at this poor, overburdened female who had fallen under her stone and drew a complete blank.

I was stunned. All sorts of things came immediately to mind like “she has her own face” and “crushed under her burden” and “valiantly struggling still” but for the life of me I couldn’t actually come up with “The Fallen Caryatid” or the name, Rodin.

It’s like the memory of the sculpture and the artist was sharp and clear in my mind and stuck behind a wall at the same time. Something like having paralysis of the thought process that might be grouped in the same genre as the bag of candy that drops but refuses to make the final trip to the dispenser.

Perhaps that’s what the afterlife is all about. Pretty much the same kind of thing we have here now except that we don’t lose our minds memories when we grow old? (or our teeth, hair or overall good looks either, yes?). Perhaps we, as humans, might even be a bit more sensible in our way of thinking as well but let’s not push it. But one thing for sure, it would certainly eliminate an awful lot of blank looks and embarrassed silences on the part of those over 50 now wouldn’t it?