Mind or body, you choose!

[morefutility]

Today I was bathing the dogs, and kept forgetting things here and there. As I was running up and down the stairs Nika gave me a funny look. I turned to her and was prepared to say that I was getting my exercise for the day, when I forgot the word for exercise. What the heck is that about? If I have any fear at all, it is that I will lose my mental faculties. Now if I have a choice, come old age, I would elect to lose my physical abilities as opposed to my mental ones. It’s not like I don’t appreciate the old bod (it has a few applications that I have come to appreciate over the years), but my mind is my most trusted friend. It keeps me amused, and plots out the meal plan. As my own mortality has presented itself within recent years (I will blame the children for this), I have tried to act in such a way as to preserve myself for the greatest number of years. I get semi-regular exercise, cut back on the soda, etc. Mentally I feel I should be given a free pass. I read more than anyone I have met, do the Sunday crossword, and love brainteasers. What more could the old brain ask for? I think that if my mind does start to go, I want it to go in entirety. I don’t want any of those brief moments of lucidity where I realize that I have forgotten how to chew, and have believed my son to be a tax collector for six months.
Perhaps I should blame my recent forgetfulness on my tendency to daydream. I have always been a thinker. I think everyone remembers the early days in a romantic relationship where one or the other glowingly looks up and says “what are you thinking?” Let me tell you those times were short lived for me. The first time that you spout off that you are contemplating the NGO response to child exploitation in Southeast Asia, you are put on that don’t ask don’t tell list. I should take the man approach and say “nothing”. Is it truly possible to think of nothing? I think when I’m sleeping. Maybe it wouldn’t be such a bad thing to be a tad senile, perhaps then I would get a decent night’s rest.
So if you had to chose between senility, or physical infirmity, what would it be?

[Todash]

Hard to say. I think it would be extremely difficult to have an active brain trapped inside a paralyzed body. If, however, we are talking about more mild cases, then let me keep my mental capacity; I can work around bad knees, etc.

[Cowboy]

Losing my mental faculties when I get older is a worry of mine. When I had to have emergency surgery on my hand a few years back, the medication they had me on made me a little "out of my head". I'm told that I was a very mean, foul-mouthed person during this time. I really don't want to be that way if I lose it. I want to be the eccentric, but nice old man that is always giving candy to the kids.

[Spideyman]

I've seen it both ways- my mom who was wheelchair bound from arthritis( every part of her body) yet having the mind of teenager. Her struggles and desires to get around, do all the things she so loved but could no longer do. The mind was willing, the body was not. The look in her eyes broke my heart.

Then there was my 98 year old Nana- the body and activity of a teenager, yet she had Alzheimers and knew no one. That too broke my heart.

[Ophelia]

I always wonder if someday I'll be the old woman everyone hears about--she goes senile, takes off her clothes, and runs up and down the street in the rain.

Maybe it will happen. But not right now.

The choice was made for me-- Ka ( ) chose mind over body.

[mstay]

I too have it both ways in my house, Spidey.

Although not because of age, my daughter is in a wheelchair and often wishes she could do all she wants with her uncooperative body. And my Mother in law, who lives with us, is beginning to forget more and more every day.

I don't know which would be worse. I guess it's good that we don't have to choose - we get what we get in life.

[CorbinKale]

I have serious back problems. I would rather have the injuries I currently have over any mental incapacity. All that constitutes a person is their experiences, thoughts and memories. The physical part is just a shell, an interface for a physical world. There are other worlds.

My Dad is less than a month from 70, with Mom not far behind. They have mellowed with age and have embraced the memory lapses as a blessing. Mom recently remarked that they enjoy life, and each other, more than ever. They don't fight anymore because they can't remember what they were mad about! lol

[Charms7]

I'm enough of a loose canon without being senile on top of it. Certain physical disabilities I know I can live with. But the ability to think straight is an absolute necessity.

[Andreas89]

it´s cool

[Mr Nobody]

It's going to suck, either way. Speaking for myself, I'd cope better with physical incapacity (lost limbs, etc) better than I would if it was mental. In fact, I've made it quite clear to all that, if ever I should have an accident and my brain was too badly affected, to finish me off. Basically, I wouldn't be the person I was or who and how they remembered me from before. In a given set of circumstances, I'd rather not wake up than wake up to dependancy/idiocy.
If it is just a loss of faculties we're talking about here, not caused through accident or other trauma, then I don't know. I'd still favour a loss of physical mobility over mental processes.
However...my grandma kept all her marbles but went blind and deaf. Either, I could cope with. Both, no way. A mind with such limited stimulus would surely go insane. I know that being able to think, etc, but unable to see or hear would drive me bonkers in double-quick time.