Friday, June 30, 2006
Even though Mom looked at the 60 Minutes segment...
...about Brain Age after she awoke from her nap, she decided she didn't want to try out the game tonight. She's a little under the wonderfully humid, volatile weather we're having, so I don't blame her. The segment showed several Ancient One senior citizens hunched over their game consoles touching screens with styli. As she watched, Mom imitated their behavior and, later, noted that they looked like "they were having fun". She's a little put off with the training angle. "It should just be fun," she said.
I understand what she means. My mother and I (and, I think, my sisters, too, I think this is an intellectual quality my mother passed to us) are of the type of people who enjoy mental stimulation and challenge without a point. Thus, we can get our nose out of joint when it is suggested that someone else understands and can cater to our point. Further, neither of us needs to be challenged to find anything stimulating. Even though my mother has dementia, she "remembers" her habits of thought and her brain tends to select and deselect options based on how she remembers it used to operate. I'm not sure whether this is going to be a negative or positive thing. She is no longer capable of successfully operating in her preferred mode, but believing that she can might get her started.
So, after breakfast tomorrow it is. In case you're wondering, I'm not having a hard time with Mom putting off her initiation into the game. I've been thinking, we've, rather, I've been making a big deal of this game. I need to settle down and remove myself from investment in any particular outcome. That way, any outcome will be interesting for me.
Today, by the way, for Mom, was entrenched. She was annoyed that it was going to rain, then annoyed when it didn't rain hard enough to satisfy her. Although she refused any analgesics, I noticed that she seemed a little stiffer than usual and slipped her an adult aspirin with her breakfast, rather than an 81 mg-er. I don't know whether it helped.
She was in a very good mood, though; even took some pleasure in being peeved at the weather and told a lot of "you and your dad"-"you and your granddad" stories. I always love those stories. They remind me that a preference for stormy, low pressure weather is significant and is pre-programmed...and, it makes me feel as though my eccentricities are stretched out over generations of people; what a treat to consider that one is putting one's personal spin on a family trait.
Oh, I have to mention, when I set up "the other computer" so that Mom could watch and hear the television segment, she was more taken by the fact that she could watch TV on the computer than by the actual story. She likes the idea of a video library-at-large. Sometimes I think she stays around because she has been delighted by all the changes since she was born and is determined to experience a few more before she has to go on. True, she's taking her delights very slowly, now, but she hasn't yet lost her spirit of anticipation. I wonder if she ever will...
...later.
I understand what she means. My mother and I (and, I think, my sisters, too, I think this is an intellectual quality my mother passed to us) are of the type of people who enjoy mental stimulation and challenge without a point. Thus, we can get our nose out of joint when it is suggested that someone else understands and can cater to our point. Further, neither of us needs to be challenged to find anything stimulating. Even though my mother has dementia, she "remembers" her habits of thought and her brain tends to select and deselect options based on how she remembers it used to operate. I'm not sure whether this is going to be a negative or positive thing. She is no longer capable of successfully operating in her preferred mode, but believing that she can might get her started.
So, after breakfast tomorrow it is. In case you're wondering, I'm not having a hard time with Mom putting off her initiation into the game. I've been thinking, we've, rather, I've been making a big deal of this game. I need to settle down and remove myself from investment in any particular outcome. That way, any outcome will be interesting for me.
Today, by the way, for Mom, was entrenched. She was annoyed that it was going to rain, then annoyed when it didn't rain hard enough to satisfy her. Although she refused any analgesics, I noticed that she seemed a little stiffer than usual and slipped her an adult aspirin with her breakfast, rather than an 81 mg-er. I don't know whether it helped.
She was in a very good mood, though; even took some pleasure in being peeved at the weather and told a lot of "you and your dad"-"you and your granddad" stories. I always love those stories. They remind me that a preference for stormy, low pressure weather is significant and is pre-programmed...and, it makes me feel as though my eccentricities are stretched out over generations of people; what a treat to consider that one is putting one's personal spin on a family trait.
Oh, I have to mention, when I set up "the other computer" so that Mom could watch and hear the television segment, she was more taken by the fact that she could watch TV on the computer than by the actual story. She likes the idea of a video library-at-large. Sometimes I think she stays around because she has been delighted by all the changes since she was born and is determined to experience a few more before she has to go on. True, she's taking her delights very slowly, now, but she hasn't yet lost her spirit of anticipation. I wonder if she ever will...
...later.
