October 12 2022.
DEMENTIA
Dementia, the word, is pure Latin, used by Cicero and various Roman authors, indicating senselessness and insanity. Its root is ‘mens’, also Latin of course, meaning ‘mind, reason, and understanding’. Our own word ‘men’, designating our humanity – now outdated as too male-oriented – is derived from that Latin word: did we ever live up to being understanding? My good Jewish friend, the late Dr. Harold Goldsman, told me that the Yiddish word ‘Mensch’ does describe a compassionate and honorable human being.
On growing older.
This week I have become 94 years old: not young, but old, but physically in good shape, walking one hour every day, almost always in a forest setting. Garden work too. I believe that I am born to live, and therefore must promote physical and mental health, be God-fearing, strictly adhering to that well-worn Latin saying, “Mens Sana in Corpore Sano”, a sound mind in a sound body.
Becoming 94 is no longer exceptional. My paternal grandfather, Opa Hielema, small grocer, broke the 90-year barrier when he died in his 91st Year. My maternal grandfather, Opa de Haan, a life-long farmer, continued his high cholesterol diet in his retirement, and died of a heart attack in 1940, at the age of 70: I was 12 then: my first brush with death.
Closer to home.
Two years ago this month, my wife of 67 years died in her 93d year. I had known her since we both were 4 years old! I remember the circumstances: her father had become the new minister of our 1300-member church. After his installation service, her parents hosted the church council and their offspring for coffee and ‘cigars’ (1932!). There’s where we met, playing hide-and-seek, together under the marital bed!
I have tried to imagine how my life would have evolved without her, and the thought alone fills me with terrible dread: she (re)formed me. However, before she turned 80, she developed dementia, common, especially in women. We both suffered from her mental deterioration for more than 12 years.
I have often wondered why women are twice as likely to suffer from dementia, even though, generally, they live longer. Men die younger because they are often foolish: take unnecessary risks, die in car accidents, suicides, have unhealthy living habits, but measured from, say 75-90 years, their life expectancy is similar.
I guess that the greater incidence of dementia in women, stems from their traditional role, of being subject to men. No hard evidence. No statistics. Just a notion.
I remember her telling me that, as a teenager, she wanted to study, but her older sister told her mother, “She will marry anyway.” It is possible that mental anguish, perhaps unconsciously, from this denigration of which so many females still suffer, may have been a contributing factor in becoming dement. Will it decline, now that women are gaining in all fields?
Also, my wife was child number 8 in a total of 12 children, losing her father when she was 9. She, I suspect, lacked some maternal attention, which could also have been a factor. I also think that, being married to me, or perhaps having married at all, might have contributed to it. I admit, initially I often made decisions without consulting her. She took a lot of courses, became a graphologist, even gave group lessons and wrote a newspaper column. But still she developed dementia.
Is there societal dementia?
I believe our society suffers from that condition. In spite of increasing signs that our carbon addiction is wrecking the planet, we prefer short-term gain, knowing full-well that we are suicidal. That indicates dementia for which there is no cure.
We are an aging society, I being a good example. The extra expense of coping with Climate Change, of caring for frail old people, of increasing expenditure for military purposes, of rising interest rates, will cause immense financial pressure on government’s budgets. These staggering costs and diminishing economic growth will bring “stagflation”, the very condition Revelation 18 talks about.
Revelation 18?
You do well to read that chapter. It portrays a rich, opulent society, in a deep economic recession. The way we live, the way Father State is called upon to finance everything broken, hurricane damage, inadequate pensions, increasing health liabilities, ever higher cost of living, galloping unemployment, more military expense, will lead to collapse. To expect the government to cover all our deficiencies, is demented thinking.
That is not pessimism: that is pure reality. A dement society can no longer see the Truth: Verse 17: “In one hour such great wealth has been brought to ruin.” It was all stolen from the Creator’s creation anyway.
Fortunately, it does not end there: Chapter 21 describes a new start: “Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth”.