Except for the almost total memory collapse of Alzheimer's, aging forgetfulness is both appropriate and adaptive to the needs of an aging person. Unlike young inexperienced-in-life people who often don't know where to put emphasis and effort, one who has lived several decades has honed their life to its essentials. They have discovered that very little in life deserves their disciplined and focused attention.

To be young is to believe that most things are still possible. To have passed through much of life has revealed the limits of one existence with its particular and peculiar talents and vulnerabilities. A great deal of work and effort has been expended upon these special foci, giving them breadth and depth. Some times well-used experience reveals a special talent, which is transferable to many places.

Aging is about narrowing focus. So also is competence. To be really great at something one must go very deeply into that skill, subject or issue, to know it so thoroughly that it's second nature, which facilitates the discovery of new ideas about this specialty. In the process many other things are discarded in order to avoid their repetitive interruption. The attention-focus of a child is very small; of an aging person who has studied something very deeply it's very large. Where a child would spend 10 seconds upon something, this experienced person would spend 10 hours. It's not possible to do that if one is constantly interested-in and distracted by a multiplicity of other things-a state of mind very appropriate to a younger person still searching for what will eventually deeply enrich their life ... and doesn't want to miss any chances.

If one can't forget many of the details of life, it's not possible to become deeply competent at something. If one can't forget what they perceive to be increasingly unnecessary clutter for the satisfaction of their life, they miss the pleasure of a gradually slower pace of living; unburdened with many of the objects they spent most of their life collecting. Indeed one looks back at all the furious activities and purchases in which they engaged, wondering why they searched so urgently for what was right there inside of them all the time.