A-to-Z challenge

Age and Memory

A to Z, A to Z - 2019 - Memory, Memory

Common knowledge tells us that as we age that we likely will become forgetful. Some fortunate few people remain sharp as a tack as they near their hundredth birthday. These people are lucid and recall life events, places, and people.

Types of Cognition and Memory

But even so, they are using a type of cognitive ability that draws upon recalling experiences more than on synthesizing new information. Accepted thought on the subject suggests that:

“The architecture of cognition changes as we age. Fluid intellectual abilities decline while crystalized abilities remain stable or increase.”

Fluid reasoning is how we assimilate and integrate new information gained by logical analysis and recognizing patterns as we think about a problem or come to a decision. Young persons have to rely on this as novel situations are common. As a person ages, he or she shows less reliance on fluid construction of thought.

Crystalized knowledge supports problem-solving by relying on accumulated knowledge. This tends to remain constant or even increase throughout the adulthood.

Memory can be an act as in remembering where we put our keys a few minutes ago, or a decades old flash of thought of a sunny summer day drinking lemonade under a backyard tree with family.

The recognition of short term and long term memory is undisputed. But the introduction of the concept of working memory as a processing or manipulation of short term memory and longterm memory is much argued.

There is also the physiological and neurological process of creating a memory and recalling that memory. The remembering process is always a reconstruction. And at some point the working memory, or the manipulation of what is in short term holding is encoded into something more permanent.

This working memory or the ability to manipulate not yet stored information seems to be where decline over time occurs as a natural part of aging.

What is Normal Memory as We Age?

Natural change in memory is nothing to worry about. We accumulate wisdom and we use it. The memory process changes as we age.

This change is not related to Alzheimers, dementia, or other illnesses. If you have concerns about remembering or forgetting the National Institute on Aging created the following infographic to help you determine what course of action to take.

https://www.nia.nih.gov/…/infographics/forgetfulness-normal-or-not

Age certainly impacts how we think. But do we have to lose fluid intelligence as we age?

Some Old Dogs Do Learn New Tricks

There are things that help with maintaining fluidity of thought, novel problem solving, and creativity in general. Exercise and a good diet are a no-brainer, but add meditation and studies show improvement in visual-spatial processing, working memory, and executive functioning.

Research also shows that fluidity of thought can be increased through cognitive training and aerobic exercise.

My personal inclination is to keep reading real scientific literature reported in reputable science reporting. It can’t hurt.

Iconic X: Oryx and Crake & the X Chromosome Meet Madame X

A to Z - 2018 - Feminine Icons, Culture, Featured Stories, Film, Mothers & Others, Reviews

Writing a themed-post on the letter X is a task with limited options. Fewer words begin with the letter X in the English language than any other letter. Even with the inclusion of Ex words we have an exceptionally small number of words with which to work. My theme for this A to Z challenge is Iconic Femininity. So let’s review Genetic Xes and Speculative Fiction that commemorates eXtinct species.

Iconic X Chromosome

The obvious post for me would be the Iconic X Chromosome. But this would kind of be cheating. I covered the subject fairly well in a couple of previous posts.
Exes, Sexes, and Mitochondrial DNA was written in 2015 for this challenge and is a great post about the an incredibly iconic aspect of being female: the X-Chromosome, that is THE female chromosome.
When I reviewed my earlier post, the Exceptional Letter X, to write this post I was reminded of a NYT article that is a wonderful resource piece for writers about Mothers Day and genetics. For Motherly X Chromosome, Gender Is Only the Beginning is the fun NYT Science Section piece that I linked to in the 2012 post. I encourage others to read my post and the NYT for Mother’s Day inspiration.

The eXtinct Oryx & an Iconic Feminist Writer

I also previous covered what was, for me, an obvious choice for an X entry, OryX and Crake, what I consider to be a must read (or listen to) speculative fiction novel by Margaret Atwood in the MaddAddam Trilogy. Everything Atwood writes is feminist at some level, and her speculative fiction is often of an eco-feminist bent. I listened to an audiobook version of the first volume in 2004 on a cross country solo road trip. On a post about the roadtrip I wrote,

Finished listening to Margaret Atwood’s Oryx and Crake yesterday. The language in the book is exquisite. The story is compelling. All the soul deep questions one asks in a lifetime are there. Her voices are so real.

Later, when I wrote the above-mentioned eXceptional post (2015) I said,

The novel is a dystopian, near future, parable that I listened to as an audiobook on one of my cross-country drives when DC political and Indiana family commitments meant I was on the road a lot. It expores the implications of genetic engineering, the ever widening gap between the haves and have-nots in gated communities turned into walled enclaves, as well as the likely development of garish sexual culture of underclass employment.

I finished the trilogy in audio versions too after writing my 2015 post. The genetically new human-derived species was a bit, well, silly, but I adored the development of the women characters and the depth of time over the series so that we could view not only an ecological collapse but how women played a significant role in building a new infrastructure that might help humans rebuild their place in the world.
This post was difficult for me as I feel like I had done a great job with my previous X posts. But there is always room for improvement and nuance, right? So I decided to get over my cringe factor with a story that is completely composed of the cruel, confining stereotypic elements of a morality tale. It is classic.

Madame X

Wikipedia summarizes the original story quite well, and you get the idea right away..

The protagonist is a woman who has been thrown out into the street without any money by her jealous husband, when he discovers she has been carrying on an affair. She is not even allowed to see their young son. She sinks into depravity.

Then flash forward a few decades and her current lover wants to exploit her former husband’s high status through blackmail, so she kills him. So in her trial for murder in which she will only reveal her name as Madame X, she ends up with her son as her attorney and to spare him the shame and such she signals her ex-husband to keep her secret. She has her classic fallen women, “Oh, please understand…” speech, after which she becomes ill, kisses her son/attorney, and dies. Can you say, “melodrama!” or what?
It is nothing that I would want to read. Quite a few people must have loved the concept of punishing women for not conforming to societal expectations for wives and mothers because the play has been remade many times in many formats including inexpensive Kindle 2017 version.
However, if you are in the mood for a classic film, the 1960s version with Lana Turner and John Forsythe is probably worth the streaming fee or purchase price. This adaptation adds a few elements, updated to mid 20th C. from early 20th C., such as a nasty mother-in-law. Grab your tissues and head into the classic zeitgeist of mid-Century Modern American Culture. This has been described as classic soap opera, very Stella Dallas, or Peyton Place-esque, and this version certainly captures something of the American mindset before the post-modern era.

Iconic J: The Jaguar Goddess

A to Z - 2018 - Feminine Icons, Cultural, Culture, Information

As I write about iconic elements of The Feminine, or what are representations of essential aspects of figures that stand for women in various phases of life or in actions or behaviors that are inherently female, I try achieve some balance although biases are inevitable. All humans have biases. One of the biases that I would love to overcome is my Eurocentric bias. The world is a vast mixture of peoples and cultures. I am somewhat ashamed that I am not more global in my knowledge.
To overcome some of that bias, I want to travel to the world of the Maya who like so many other cultures have symbolically celebrated the wisdom and power of aged women in one of their Jaguar deities.

Jaguar. Panther Panthera onca
USFWS – U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Digital Library SystemPublic domain image by USFWS – U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Digital Library System

The incorporation of animal spirits into the gods and goddesses that helped the Maya give meaning and order to their world is essential to any understanding of their world view. Nature, people, and the animals and plants of their environment cannot be looked at individually. A pantheon of ruling and guiding spirits collectively influenced all peoples lives, not just human-formed deities, but mythic and magical beings taken from all aspects of the environment in which they lived.

Ixchel or Ix Chel was the aged jaguar goddess of midwifery and medicine in ancient Maya culture. The continuation of people is such a basic need that only a powerful goddess could do it justice.

She wears a snake headdress. Crossed bones are sometimes present on her dress. Her hands and feet are often depicted with claws. Her ears are those of the Jaguar.

She is also the goddess of the moon, fertility, medicine, weaving, rainbows, songs and childbirth. Ixchel also watches over bodies of water, such as natural wells (cenotes), underground rivers and the ocean. There really are no above ground rivers in the territory where the Maya lived, then and now. The cenotes were the source of water and life. It makes sense that the Jaguar Goddess would oversee such a vital resource.

Like so much of Mayan culture, which was document in their literature, most was lost when the invading Spanish destroyed all their books, written records and scrolls, save a very small number recorded in items such as the Dresden Codex.

The Jaguar was the top predator in the Mayan world. It is easy to understand the awe given to the Jaguar by the Mayans if you have ever been in the wild near a large cat.
My own first such experience was in Arivaipa Canyon in Arizona when my daughter was young. We were hiking as a group of around 10 people including a couple of children. This was a permitted hike in the section managed by the BLM. A mountain lion walked with us all of one day, as far as we could tell, pacing us along a cliff-top trail. It was stealthy but once spotted, we kept the kids in the middle of the group so the cat would not get any ideas that it could snag a straggler. I was not afraid, but I was in awe. I was just a part of nature, as was the mountain lion. Jaguars are bigger than mountain lions.
As a side note, a border wall would further endanger these cat species which do include the mountain ranges and wilderness area north of Mexico as the northern part of their ranges. A jaguar was spotted a couple years ago in Madera Canyon near Tucson.
Gods still walk among us.

The A of Legacy Tools

A to Z of Legacy 2016

is for Acid-Free in the A to Z of Tools for Legacy

When considering the preservation of items for legacy purposes the composition of the individual item and the environment in which the item is placed impact the use, display, and storage of of the item.

Chemistry of Paper

Chemical composition of a substance falls along a range of acidic and base reactivity. Acids accept electrons from other materials into their chemical structure. Bases give electrons to other materials. These states are measured by pH which is the potential of hydrogen. Without technical explanation, you can grasp the essence of the 14 point scale that describes the pH of a substance. A measure of 0 to just under 7 is considered acidic while a measure of just over 7 through 14 is considered alkaline or basic.
Neither end of the 14 point scale is desirable for preservation purposes. For example, battery acid is less than 1 on the scale and drain cleaner is around 14. 7 is considered neutral and is the pH of water.
For preservation purposes 7, a neutral pH, is good, usually. But just as important is a stable environment.
For archival or preservation purposes, the chemical structure of an item should remain stable. Each type of material has a different chemical composition and that impacts optimal storage conditions.
The term “acid-free” typically describes paper that is used for archival or conservation purposes. This means it has a pH of 7 or higher.
Something could be “acid free” with a very high pH that would not be stable.

Structure of Paper

“Lignin-free” is also used to describe archival paper. Lignin are fibers in wood that hold the cellulose of the tree together. Lignin are composed of short fibers that release acids and decompose rapidly. Long-fibered papers, made from cotton and flax plants, are preferred for archival purposes as they do not contain lignin and have a more stable, much longer, shelf life.

Archival quality papers tend to be pH 7 to 9. This slight alkalinity helps counter the migration of acids as materials degrade over time. Many archival papers have a buffering agent added to pulp in manufacture to increase alkalinity as all papers decrease in pH over time.

Recommended Resources

The linked download below takes you PDF is in the public domain and is highly recommended as an introduction to conservation. It is written for government conservators is readable and useful, and only 4 pages long!

National Park Service Conserve O Gram 4.9

If you are in the market to shop for acid-free storage containers, envelopes, and boxes, check out the Container Store! This is a non-compensated plug for a very mainstream brick and mortar store that understands storage and preservation.
Online Archival Supply Companies

Nancy, the editor and publisher of WLP, has used products from both of these companies during her time working in libraries and museums, so she knows these suppliers provide good quality archival products. She has received no compensation for mentioning these company brands. Many other companies also provide archival products, just be sure to check the acid and lignin composition of all items before you order or purchase.

Legacy Tools

April 2016 A to Z Challenge

Letter A
Archival Needs
Tools for Legacy projects

Juggling, Learning, Doing Women's History

Mothers & Others

At the beginning of every month I now put an article on this site’s home or landing page, that is also a blog post, that is intended to give readers ideas for creating content related to women’s history, the historic events of the month, and historic and archaeological events involving women. There are supposed to be 30 to 40 prompts or spin off points in each of these “month of…” posts. I enjoy the exercise of putting these together whenever I do them. I really, really like this month’s post of prompts, if I do say so myself. Do check it out.

Did you see the Presidential Proclamation on Women’s History Month, 2016? You can find it here. In it the President encourages us to observe International Women’s Day on March 8th. He also suggests going to WomensHistoryMonth.gov for information about “the generations of women who,” as he says, “left enduring imprints on our history.” He also mentions the upcoming summit the White House will host on “The United State of Women,” in May. It will both highlight advances in and efforts to help women confront the challenges while aspiring to greatness.
Of course, as this month is Women’s History Month, I am learning more about being an editor and publisher via the Her Story series I am publishing on this site. So far we have had a story about a Persian grandmother’s hand-crafted textile and all it conveys to a granddaughter. Next up will be a story from a teacher about a teacher. Actually we have two of those. Another will be about a single mom. There will be a step-mother tribute, and another will pay homage to a very special mother in law. And aunts and grandmothers and great aunts will be covered too. I hope to receive a story about a WWII female pilot within a day or two. And there are more! Stories of regular women who were significant – we all have such stories and I am so happy to be able to bring some of them to you.
Last year in April, as this site was just a wet and screaming neonate, the A to Z Challenge helped us plant 26 basic articles about Women’s Legacy. Come this April, in a very few weeks, we will be doing another series of 26 posts with an A to Z coverage of a Legacy Tools theme. It is a busy Spring. Hope you will continue to enjoy it with us.