An old car is a used car ready to be written off. At best it becomes a collector’s item.

With an old bottle, it depends on whether it is a vintage claret or just a cheap old wine.

It is not because of age that memory is good or not, it depends on how we use our memory.

It is the same capacity for affection that we have throughout our lives. The same word, “love”, is used, whether it be a that of a child for its parents, the love discovered during adolescence, the love of our first child or one’s newborn grandson, Forms of love change because the love function changes with new life experiences. The main thing is to have the opportunity to experience the thousand facets of human love discovered as the years go by.

“The main thing is to have the opportunity to experience the thousand facets of human love.”

Our memory changes as the years go by. When no illness intervenes, it does not deteriorate. It lives through new realities. We should not spend our time regretting what we used to be able to do and we can no longer do. An older person’s memory has a job that is just as important during life as that of childhood memory. They are different. Today the memory has a fresh chance.

The memory’s performance evolves with time.

The acquisition stage is easily measured. This stage occurs during childhood. A child is like a sponge and absorbs information without being aware of it.

An adult’s performance involves the capacity to use what has been learnt by adding to the capital acquired early in life. This performance is based on use.

There is no age limit for accumulating information and using it. But with the years another need appears : that of putting in order the vast mass of information acquired over time. Recalling events, of savouring them again, of taking pleasure in talking about them, is a new type of memory game that mostly involves integration of these memories. In the wake of changes, with the loss of our dear ones, and the increasing solitude that ensues, the memory constitutes an indispensable foundation for a mind that has been upset by events. This is not an inferior memory, far from it. It is a memory that analyses, that globalises and integrates. This is probably the most important act before death comes and puts an end to a fully accomplished life.

Because there is no scale to measure this improvement, the accent is placed on the memory problems we meet : difficulty in recalling names, losing things, problems with orientation in time or space… These losses are easily perceived and measured. The work of analysis, of the new meaning we give to life’s events in the light of experience, this work passes completely unnoticed by superficial observers. Perhaps we should learn to understand and so to better perceive these changes.

“There is no age limit for growth of our mental capacities : intelligence, capacity for affection, memory.”

Memory changes over the years not by deteriorating but simply through living. Since memory is a living thing, we need an entire life to find all the secrets and capacities it possesses