dementia
"Was thinking early this a.m. while in bed how Gordie's departure into dementia is like a death with no funeral and no casseroles."
"A way to explain dementia is like a Christmas tree with millions of fairy lights. It's wonderful when you switch it on, but then dementia hits and some of the lights go out. These are memories. Then they flick back on, then they go out, then they come back on. It carries on."
"Jane makes the analogy that dementia is like a bookcase. The bookcase is packed with thousands of books – each one a memory. The bottom shelf, the one that is perhaps the sturdiest, is your childhood. This is safest from swaying when dementia 'hits' and starts knocking all the books off and jumbling them up. The top shelf is the one with the most recent memories – those from half an hour ago and so on. These are the books that fall the quickest when dementia strikes."
METAMIA is a free database of analogy and metaphor. Anyone can contribute or search. The subject matter can be anything. Science is popular, but poetry is encouraged. The goal is to integrate our fluid muses with the stark literalism of a relational database. Metamia is like a girdle for your muses, a cognitive girdle.