Making Coffee

On the first day of the Introduction to Psychology class I took freshman year of college, the professor promised he would teach us, among other things, techniques that would benefit our studies. As if to prove it, he took a Polaroid of each us and returned five days later knowing every one of our names. It was a class of 120 students. He taught four classes that semester. In retrospect, I might have been a better student if I hadn't skipped so much.

But anyway, one of the things he noted in lecture one day was how important environment is. The way things are interconnected within our brain adds importance to the context within which they are presented. Theoretically, if you study while listening to music, you will better recall the same information during your exam if you are listening to the same music. Which is unfortunate, since you cannot listen to music while taking an exam. Not only are sounds important, but all the senses - sight, sound, smell, taste, and touch. As I begin my daily studies at a local Starbucks I inevitably think, "Remember to get a grande dark roast before the exam."

The idea of environment also suggests that your morning coffee is not just a caffeine buzz. If you routinely start your day with eight ounces of coffee, one teaspoon of sugar, and one teaspoon of Coffeemate in your favorite Hello Kitty coffee mug, you just might be better off than if you don't. Of course, you might be even better still if you completely ween yourself off of coffee, eat healthy, exercise, and sleep eight hours every night. But that's not the point.

Anyway, imagine that for decades you've started a pot of coffee first thing in the morning. While it's brewing, you'd stroll out to the end of the driveway, and return with the newspaper. You would, as on any other day, enjoy both the coffee and the newspaper in your favorite lounge chair. But one day, just a couple months short of your 97th birthday, you wake up and walk to the kitchen. There, you see a coffee maker and you know you want coffee, but your Alzheimer's has stripped from you the ability to make it. You stare at the same coffee maker you've had since the 80s, and nothing.

Since then, only a few days ago, my grandfather has remembered how to make coffee. He made some for himself this morning. But I imagine it was a pretty helpless feeling that day. A, "Where am I?" sort of feeling. I imagine the newspaper felt different. And his favorite lounge chair.

These are things I never thought of when Alzheimer's was someone else's problem.

Anyway, tonight, I stopped by to visit him late, around 10:00. He was watching, "Watari, the Ninja Boy" on the Nihon Gold Network. It was awful. I presented a bowl to him and he recognized it immediately. Sitting in the chair just three feet from the television, he spooned away. Finishing the bowl slightly out of breath, he exclaimed his highest superlative. "Good!"

It was clear this was not the first time he had had chocolate ice cream - he knew exactly what to do with it.