Introduction As I had the opportunity to look through approximately 25 years of journal articles cited in Interpretation: A Journal of Bible and Theology, an article stood out to me that I wanted to read further. That article was entitled Wisdom and/or Dementia: Is This the Choice American Society is Mired In? I have been working in Aging and Disability Services at Catholic Charities Diocese of Joliet for the past 7 months and have encountered my fair share of seniors with a variety of aging issues including dementia. Seniors have never been a popular age group for me personally because I have enjoyed working with children since my teenage years. It wasn’t until recently that I started working with seniors specifically and it was a totally
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This is a very different definition of wisdom than the author’s mother and also the bible. For many years wisdom has been undefined. “In psychology, studies of wisdom began in the 1990s, but there has been no consensus on what wisdom is” (126). With the unknown aspect of wisdom it seems like many people define wisdom in black and white. Either you are wise or you are not. There seems to be no in between with the definition of wisdom. I believe this is where the article really speaks up regarding dementia. Dementia has been seen as the loss of wisdom for so many people, including myself. Progressive elderly people face a decline to their mental cognitive state. The article educated me that dementia is not an impairment that is easily defined like wisdom. Due to the article I know understand that dementia’s diagnosis is based on various tests and it may not be correctly recognized due to many other cognitive issues that people face (127 & 128). The author informs readers that he is pleased that scientific studies are now rejecting the idea of dementia, even though it had been previously defined, because it is not thoroughly understood or classified in a way that can traced to causes or examined to find …show more content…
Her insights were noted amongst the article as an example of what someone who is aging interprets aging to be. His mother had established a successful career in education for 25 years, but saw wisdom as the endpoint of being kind. I have found myself in situations where I personally have become frustrated with older people because I would constantly feel like I would be repeating myself or reminding them of things that I had previously said, but during those times I also know that my patience is growing. I remember an incident where I worked with a client who participated in the Money Management Program and I would ask her to go get an item and she would come back without the item and I would tell her again. Her independence at times was frustrating because she wanted to do things completely on her own, but would sometimes be incapable of completing the task. In times that she wasn’t able to do things on her own she became frustrated and with frustration there tended to be a lack of what I thought was wisdom. I am glad that this article doesn’t simply equate wisdom to age, instead it shows that older people tend to be grouped in a category of either having wisdom or dementia. I think this is a very broad way that people look at elderly people and I am glad that the author was very transparent about these categories with his aging mother’s experiences as
This is a very different definition of wisdom than the author’s mother and also the bible. For many years wisdom has been undefined. “In psychology, studies of wisdom began in the 1990s, but there has been no consensus on what wisdom is” (126). With the unknown aspect of wisdom it seems like many people define wisdom in black and white. Either you are wise or you are not. There seems to be no in between with the definition of wisdom. I believe this is where the article really speaks up regarding dementia. Dementia has been seen as the loss of wisdom for so many people, including myself. Progressive elderly people face a decline to their mental cognitive state. The article educated me that dementia is not an impairment that is easily defined like wisdom. Due to the article I know understand that dementia’s diagnosis is based on various tests and it may not be correctly recognized due to many other cognitive issues that people face (127 & 128). The author informs readers that he is pleased that scientific studies are now rejecting the idea of dementia, even though it had been previously defined, because it is not thoroughly understood or classified in a way that can traced to causes or examined to find …show more content…
Her insights were noted amongst the article as an example of what someone who is aging interprets aging to be. His mother had established a successful career in education for 25 years, but saw wisdom as the endpoint of being kind. I have found myself in situations where I personally have become frustrated with older people because I would constantly feel like I would be repeating myself or reminding them of things that I had previously said, but during those times I also know that my patience is growing. I remember an incident where I worked with a client who participated in the Money Management Program and I would ask her to go get an item and she would come back without the item and I would tell her again. Her independence at times was frustrating because she wanted to do things completely on her own, but would sometimes be incapable of completing the task. In times that she wasn’t able to do things on her own she became frustrated and with frustration there tended to be a lack of what I thought was wisdom. I am glad that this article doesn’t simply equate wisdom to age, instead it shows that older people tend to be grouped in a category of either having wisdom or dementia. I think this is a very broad way that people look at elderly people and I am glad that the author was very transparent about these categories with his aging mother’s experiences as