January 11, 2010

My 88 year old mother, who is slowly losing her mental faculties, is having trouble with the year 2010. She is having trouble writing the actual number. A few days ago she came to me in frustrated confusion, checkbook in hand, and asked if I could help her write out a couple of checks. I looked at several discarded attempts and could clearly see that she was struggling to write in the date. “Just think twenty ten, mom.” I said, trying to help her.

I remember when windshield wiper fluid began to come onto the market. Before the advent of the automatic ‘spurt’ on to the windshield, one would actually have to stop and get out of the car and manually wipe down the windshield with this wonder product. It was amazing how it would take the glare off of the windshield, especially helpful in rainy wet night driving conditions. I recall the product name….20/10. I don’t know what those numbers refer to.

It seems that memory formation consists of a continual grafting and memory loss a continual pruning.
2010 the year…20/10 the wiper fluid now grafted together in my memory. What day is it? What year?...an orientation in time pruned from my mother’s memory.

For everything there is a season….