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[Exploring Life] As We Get Older: Macleans Magazine has published an important article entitled Don't Seniors Deserve Better? in which Ken McQueen explores the reality of how the elderly are treated in our hospital system. In the years leading up to their deaths, part of the care I provided for my parents was to help navigate them through the hospital system first as their son, then as their son and Power of Attorney. The points Ken McQueen raises in his article resonate with me as being strikingly true. Though criticism is often all too easy an approach to take, my intent here is to in fact take a critical look at my parents experiences in the hospital (nursing homes are just as challenging but will not be discussed here), and to relate those experiences to the issues raised in Don't Seniors Deserve Better?

[Exploring Life] A Journey Into Memory: It has now been nearly two months since my father passed away, and five months since my mother passed away. I am learning more and more about the nature and power of memory; the ways in which I interpret and explore my own memories are changing in response to the experience of losing both parents. While I have always understood that memory is more than a mere recollection of facts or a mental romp through past events, I am quite surprised at the vast perceptual landscape that memory embraces. Memory can reveal itself through powerful imagery that envelope our senses is the essence of an experience. Memory can be an echo originating in the resonance of a sound that is retrieved from the past. Memory can simply be a feeling that has no clear reference to either visual image or sound; memory can be a sensation of touch deep within the body. In this post I will share the memory of the immediate aftermath of my parents' death in order to explore the deeper workings of memory.