Older people in our country are often relegated to memories...reminiscing fondly of past events in their lives. And those memories can be very sweet and enjoyable. I have so often seen the elderly sitting passively on a bench in a park, watching the younger joyfully excited about the moment, exchanging excitements, courting, frolicking. And the elderly remember their youth, and smile.
Memories play an important part in our lives, but for many, they are not enough. Because remembering entails looking back at the past, it is not truly living in the present. Watching television, reading books, even gazing at the lake, can be passive, unfulfilling time spenders. Active living is what is what is missing, and what is needed.
And so I am forming a new service for the elderly, a new service that I call "Second Time Sweet". A consultant of STS will, for a reasonable fee, personally meet with the elderly person, discuss the memory he or she would like to relive, and make all of the arrangements for that to happen, as if it were happening for the first time. Trip to another country, a first date, a party with childhood friends? To the extent possible, all will be provided. The memory will come to life, experienced anew, experienced, perhaps, even sweeter. Unity will be established between the past and the present.
And will give birth to yet another fond memory.
Imagine that!
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