I have not too secretly taken comfort in the fact my low blood pressure, low cholesterol, life as an almost vegetarian, countless vitamins, too many years spent in higher education, being an extrovert, my renewed and strong sense of purpose, living a purpose-filled life, enjoying the company of many, many others, plus other factors in and out side of me - past and present seems to have insulated me from the symptoms of my condition (Dementia, probably of the Alzheimer’s type). Researchers have labeled the consequences of this life style/history as cognitive reserve. My brain has been preparing me to successfully cope/cover up the symptoms of dementia relatively longer than other folks who have not generally walk on a life path similar to mine. Researchers have also discovered that folks who are better prepared/able to cope with the increase in the number and severity of the symptoms of dementia early-on reach a point (as in fact does everyone - it just takes us longer to get there) where we begin to exhaust our ability to cope with them, and then they begin a period of rapid decline until they reach the same levels of functional abilities of our symptomatic cognitive skills (Dr. Alzheimer’s seems to select the mix of symptoms and the progress of each of them based upon criteria that only he knows) that folks who lived lives different from mine, made choices different from mine, and so on and so on. I’m just luck that the manner in which my career/self/life developed better prepared me for my battle to cope with the symptoms of Dementia than some other folks.

That, in my occasionally humble opinion is why I am who I am today. I am walking a plank that sticks out over the slide of the symptoms of dementia. When I will fall of this plank is a matter of increasing concern to me.