7 May

Sad to hear Barry Otto is battling Alzheimers. Though always difficult to know how much the sufferers suffer, Otto apparently is enjoying a new childhood, with hot chip sandwiches and strawberry milkshakes, and delight at simple things like rain. The dementias should make us think a lot harder about memory. Losing memory can seem like a tragedy, and it makes ordinary life very difficult to live. But just maybe you access a completely different way of being. An eternal present. Bergson pointed out that time doesn’t pass. The past never actually leaves us, it just becomes dormant. You experience that in moments of deja vu, or with smells or tastes that transport you instantly to a past time. How many days of your life do you actually remember? For example, do you remember being 5? Or 13? Or even 30? You might remember particular events. But I bet you’ve forgotten what you did on most of the days of your life. There are mysteries here.