Of Condiments and Crumbling Walls

While listening to an audio book during my walk this past week, I heard lines worthy of a quote.  They pertained to the ageing mind, particularly those plagued by the various ghost-like forms of senile dementia -- Alzheimer's being chief among them.

The book is 'The Bonesetter's Daughter' by Amy Tan.  What follows is a segmented quote:

" . . . thoughts that were like crumbling walls . . . stones without mortars. "

Three times I backtracked this portion of the recording to hear it and to copy it down on paper.  Poetic, appropriate, relaying the decay of the brain with a sad directness.  I can see those loose stones, coming loose from their moorings, falling in pieces and then chunks, coming to an abrupt rest as an unrecognizable pile of useless, disjointed words and thoughts, connected to nothing, no hope of reconstruction.

My father-in-law's mother fell into an often angry shadow of her former self courtesy of her failing brain.  By then, my little family had moved back to Colorado from Omaha, so we were not there to personally witness the pulling apart at the seams.  But we heard the stories, in full, in bits and segments, and they resembled not the sweet little lady who offered my children ice cream from her small humming refrigerator.  It was a painful life chapter for my husband's dad.  No one should have to suffer such a thing on either side of the equation, but many do.

It triggered something in my yet healthy (though often stressed into memory loss) and functioning gray matter.  An odd news story brought to my attention by a friend and reader of my blog.  It was to be my source material, in a completely different presentation than I now write, for this particular entry.  Until I heard those aforementioned lines.

A 74 year-old woman in Boise, Idaho was arrested in connection with a spree of condiment-related crimes.  (Click here.)   The action which resulted in her apprehension involved the pouring of mayonnaise into a library book drop.  Vandalism, pure and simple.  Previous recorded incidents being attributed to her antics involve corn syrup and ketchup.  Used separately, of course.  Though one is often found in the ingredient list of the other!  On the surface, it all sounds a bit humorous, not to mention preposterous and stupid.  But, I got to wondering if her mind was a bit addled.  If she doesn't harbor ill will toward the library -- an investigation is still pending -- then her motives lie elsewhere.

Most of these stories make for great headlines.  Underneath those eye-catching lines, however, the plot is usually more complex than one would first surmise.  My awareness concerning this was magnified after my family was involved in a terrible, thus newsworthy, family tragedy.  So, even when I hear what sounds like a hilarious hijinx kind of story, even when I chuckle a bit or roll my eyes, I remind myself these things are hardly ever what they seem.  Nothing ever is.

Says the platinum blonde on her soapbox as she most likely preaches to the choir.