A Trip Down Memory Lane

     My brother, Tee, seems to live in the past. His memories are the only place he likes to visit. He collects them like my mother collects twist ties. And the details that he remembers are astounding. I always think of the Springsteen song, "Glory Days" when he starts talking:

("Now I think I'm going down to the well tonight
and I'm going to drink till I get my fill
And I hope when I get old I don't sit around thinking about it
but I probably will
Yeah, just sitting back trying to recapture
a little of the glory of, well time slips away
and leaves you with nothing mister but
boring stories of glory days" Words and music by Bruce Springsteen)

The problem with this is that he has bought a ticket for my mom and keeps expecting her to go. She cannot. He really does need to get with the program. It does not help her, It does not stir anything. She only gets more confused and agitated. And then he goes home. I really do have to talk to him, again.

      Her passport has expired; the road is closed and is not expected to re-open; the concrete has buckled and the potholes are irreparable; their are sinkholes, swamps, deserts, ice fields, cliffs; the tires are flat and the engine cannot be put in gear. Have I used enough figurative language? I can go on, if you want.

      She cannot answer the questions he asks. Nothing makes sense to her. Logic doesn't exist. Time has collapsed. Talk about living in the moment... It is difficult to wrap your head around the way her brain works. Everything in her past is happening at the same time in the present. And some of it may not have actually  happened at all. She gives new definition to the idea of going with the flow. As I like to say, I have to be like a cork on the water...

Th, th, th, that's all for now, folks, see you next time...