Time is a place. Each moment is a statue in time, always rooted in that time and that place. Memory allows us to visit them.
After eight decades of this, I have amassed a library of memories. Stacks after stacks of time statues archives. So much that it can take minutes or more to access just one memory and only with patience. Elders do better at this when we imagine our search as an ordering at a restaurant. Then, usually, it will come. Arriving late? But it will come.
From the viewpoint of age, we can view these memories in their entirety as a grand tapestry. Not necessarily arranged in order, chronologically. More by specific themes jumping temporal locations to connect in themes. Chosen here:
On the Job, Language & Influence, Citizenship, Family: Non-Human Relatives, Family: Human. What is a good guiding strategy for navigating these patterns, this treasure in an elder's experience? Maybe it's ones that were meaningful or fun. Sometimes both? Usually based on real past experience. Sometimes not.
