And what the world does not realize is that the Old Testament was also passed from generation to generation by word of mouth. It must be that these people had an extraordinary memory.
So much so that the collective memory of the community was the first legal archive. Laws were preserved in memory before they were preserved in documents.
Thomas Aquinas in his Summa Theologia is said to have developed Cicero's definition of memory as part of Prudence, making it one of the four capital virtues.
Whereas for Dante in The Divine Comedy, all the images of Hell, Purgatory and Paradise were not meant to be seen with the eyes, but rather to provide us with images invisible to the memory.
It was indeed after Guttenberg that the printed book became the new storehouse of Memory.
Victor Hugo in Notre Dame de Paris concluded that printing has destroyed 'the invisible cathedrals of the Memory’.
However, we must beware of an emotion that is ambivalent from the point of view of memory preservation, and which is called anxiety.
How do we build a good memory?
How can we preserve so many memories?
We need to live in an emotional, pleasant and positive context, even to the point of associating it with this simple notion: "if you want to build a good memory, multiply the opportunities to be happy".
There is nothing better than childhood memories, this period generous in pleasant emotions evolving in a favorable context, where we were taken care of, supported, recognized...
By the way, there are many different memories, aren't there?
You remember the face of someone you saw a few years ago. This is the visual memory. On the other hand, you have retained the remarks of a conference you attended last summer. This is auditory memory.
We remember a perfume that enchanted us. This is the sensory memory. And the taste that this wonderful champagne left you. Gustatory memory. And what about the feeling of a beautiful hair. Is it the tactile memory.
I get lost.
The memory remains a treasure to be cultivated.
A dear friend of mine told me these last few days that he had lost his memory a little. He was scorned for it, because for him the memory is vital, without it, life is worn out. He even went so far as to draw a parallel between memory and sight.
Being deprived of memory is like being deprived of sight and life takes a hit.
I think of this friend and feel bad for him. As long as I have my memory, I will make sure to call him from time to time and help him remember some of the past we shared.
I remember when I was twenty, I wanted to be forty. Why did I want to be forty?
Because it's supposed to be the age of wisdom.
Having reached forty, I wasn't so sure I had acquired it.
And then came the sixty! And then you start to get used to it.
And life goes on
The question arises: at what age do you become old?
I would like to say that we never become old, as long as we insist on keeping ourselves in a shape that does not make us old. And apart from the physical aspect, there is the mental side that also plays its part.
Indeed, each of us ages in his own way. Is mine the best?
I remember learning that both Epicurus and Plato believed that old age provided a unique opportunity for unparalleled expression of our thoughts. In The Republic, Plato basically attributed this window of opportunity to the fact that we no longer have priapism. Old age has a great sense of calm and freedom, when the passions loosen their grip, we are no longer the slave of one master but of many.
A study done at the University of Montreal found that old minds are more efficient and competent than young ones. We now have neuro-biological evidence that with age comes wisdom and as the brain ages, it learns to better allocate its resources.
And it was Frederic Nietzsche who said that the man of the future will be the one with the longest memory. That we must not forget betrayals. That memory must be transmitted, because it is often mysterious.
And continuing my research, I discovered that according to Pascale Senk, Memory is a treasure to be cultivated, so much so that our ability to remember is linked to an emotional and physical balance that is refined on a daily basis and at all ages.
And to think that we have always thought that our cognitive and memory capacity would decrease with age and that cerebral degeneration would inevitably take little interest in memory. Fortunately, the semantic memory (the memory storing our knowledge), increases as life goes on.
Depending on how one defines wiser, I remain convinced that old people have the capacity to think with a substantially different perspective than their younger counterparts.
In his second book of his Rhetoric, Aristotle, on the subject of old people wrote:''They live by memory rather than by hope, because their remaining life is so little compared to their long past; and hope belongs to the future, while memory belongs to the past.
This is the reason for their loquacity. These old people talk about the past all the time because they like to remember it.
Bertrand Russel wrote in his 1975 essay "How to grow old": psychologically, there are two dangers from which we must protect ourselves in old age. One of them is that of an absorption not due to the past. It is not worth living in one's memories, regretting the good old days, or the sadness of deceased friends. One's thoughts must be directed to the future, and to the things for which something must be done.
So there is so much to say about old age, and I wish it was all good. But there is also some bad.
We can certainly say that in our youth we run towards difficulties, while in old age they run after us. And isn't it true that the only thing that comes to us effortlessly is old age?
And here are two people who displease me by what they say about our subject.
The first is Tolstoy: "The old fortresses are destroyed, the monuments of kings are demolished, old age ravages our bodies. Only the teachings of goodness are never ruined or affected by age.
The second is Solomon Ibn Gabirol: "Learning in old age is like writing on sand, learning in youth is like engraved in stone.
To be closer to reality, I will take a tangible example.
I have been a member of a gym for five years now. And since the first day, I noticed that all the members were rather old. This didn't bother me much. Now they are all a little older, and so am I, although at seventy I am still almost the youngest. One of them has just celebrated his 90th birthday, while our group leader, to whom you will give 70, is 85.
In other words, it seems that diligent exercise keeps one young and fit.
I go to this club five days a week between 10 a.m. and noon and come out each time feeling refreshed and rejuvenated. Is this the right formula?
And speaking of reality, it is Erasmus who comes to mind, because he did not mince his words to say what he thinks of old people: ''They differ only by wrinkles and the number of years. Light hair, mouth without teeth, small body, taste of milk, stammering, babbling, silliness, lack of memory, absent-mindedness, everything brings them together and the more old age advances, the more this resemblance is accentuated until the hour when one leaves the days, unable at the same time like the child, to regret life and to feel death...
He certainly read Seneque who said: "Finally, here comes the old age, in charge of oneself and of others and that nobody can endure.
Before I finish, I would like to throw in a few notions that might please by their originality. Such as:
To grow old is to pass from passion to compassion.
Growing old is the best way to live long.
We all want to live old but refuse to be old.
Young people are in groups, adults in couples, old people are alone
In the eyes of a young person shines the flame. In the eyes of an old man shines the light.
The initiative of the young is as valuable as the experience of the old.
And if one believes that old age causes us a feeling of anger, of contempt, even of injustice, then this word of André Gide would be very appropriate:
A book of indignation is the best insurance against old age.
