Memory

Granny Mành pointed outside to the street and said to Hưng:

• Do you see that man in a suit carrying a briefcase?
  Little Hưng answered:
• The one walking next to the beautiful woman, Granny?
• That's him, child. Twenty years ago he was an accomplice in a murder and robbery in the next village and then vanished without trace. Now he has reappeared in a different disguise. Many people have forgotten, many have passed away, but I still remember clearly even though his face has changed and been altered. I wonder what scheme he has in coming back here this time.
• As I understand it, the law says that anyone who knows of a crime and does not report it is also guilty. So I'll call the police at once.

Two days later three police officers visited Granny Mành and said:

• That man Đọi was about to commit a major crime after 20 years on the run from a wanted notice. He believed that his accomplice's family was still hiding a large sum of money, so he came back to threaten them and demand it. Luckily you recognised him quickly and reported to the authorities, so we have both caught a fugitive and prevented another crime. On behalf of the agency, we thank you very much.
  While we're here, may we ask: what is your secret, Granny, that at the age of 90 you still have such a good memory?
  Granny Mành chewed her betel quid, spat into the spittoon and said slowly:
• I have no secret. I'm old and do nothing, so I often sit and go over the old days. Whoever treated me badly, I remember so as to forgive them; whoever treated me well, I remember so as to be grateful. Then I tell my children and grandchildren to go and find the people who did me favours, to visit them and repay them. But it's hard to find old acquaintances now, dear. In those days there were no phones or emails or anything, so once you were apart you lost contact for good. If I find a benefactor to visit and repay, my heart is light. If I cannot find them, my heart stays heavy, dear.
• You are someone who lives with such loyalty and kindness. We must learn this virtue from you. Perhaps this is also the law of cause and effect: whoever often remembers kindness gets a good memory, whoever easily forgets kindness quickly becomes absent-minded. I don't know whether I'm right in saying so 🧙‍♂️

Older people easily suffer two illnesses: the trembling of Parkinson's and the memory loss of Alzheimer's. Both are caused by deterioration and shrinking of the brain and a loss of cells. The two illnesses also often go together. Trembling uses up the body's energy and strains the brain, making it hard to sleep. Difficulty sleeping then harms the brain faster. When the brain is damaged, memory is gradually lost.

Memory is an important element of thinking. Without memory, the brain has no database to think with. Losing memory means losing the source on which intelligence works. Except for young super-spies in films, who suffer a head injury that wipes their memory and still act brilliantly, the rest of us who lose our memory become invalids.

Even people who train their memory by some technique can do nothing when the brain loses cells and memory fails in old age; they cannot recover the extraordinary memory they once had. Generally speaking, memory is still an unknown: we have not yet decoded it so as to master our own memory.

But the police officer was very intelligent, and on hearing the old woman's story he discovered the secret of memory. This secret belongs to the realm of ethics. Whoever lives with loyalty and kindness, and carries a heart that often remembers past favours, will keep a clear memory regardless of old age. Conversely, whoever is often ungrateful, forgets old affection and reflects little on the teachings of the sages will quickly come down with the absent-mindedness of Alzheimer's.

We also see many elderly people who remember everything, who even when dying are still clear-minded enough to give their children and grandchildren many important instructions. If we ask their families, we find that these elders lived with great loyalty and kindness. And what is loyalty and kindness? It is cherishing the favours of the past.