What a Day for a Daydream

So all I have to do is dream...if I want to get Alzheimer's.

A recent study finds a link between daydreaming and Alzheimer's Disease, which attacks the very parts of the brain that we use to create waking fantasies.

Alzheimer's has taken on a new dimension ever since my father was diagnosed with the disease. Now every time I forget or misplace something or struggle to recall a name or movie title, I ask myself is this how it starts?

It seems that daydreaming may be having the same effect as idling a car. You're using up energy and wearing down the engine, but you're not going one inch forward. Gosh, that sounds familiar.

Oh, spiffy. Something else to worry about. If this is true, this is quite serious: all I do is daydream for God's sake. Ever since I was a kid I've dreamed about being famous, loved, strong, fearless, I even saw myself as a talented singer.

Now I don't think I'm the only doing this. Daydreaming has been a plot devise in countless movies, books, (Billy Liar, a book and a movie), and the subject of God knows how many songs--All I Have to Do Is Dream; In Dreams; I Should Be So Lucky;

However, I do believe I'm in the elite when it comes to conjuring up a history that never happened. I talk to myself, I revise the past and script the future. I pretty much inhabit my body on a part-time basis, while the rest of the time is spent in Dementiaville.

When I was a kid I fantasized about stomping school bullies and vicious nuns. I was the smartest kid in the class and the best child a family ever had.

In my adult daydreams I'm a published novelist, a successful filmmaker, a peerless pundit and a happy, balanced member of society. And of course I mercilessly snub anybody who's ever done me wrong.

Naturally, sex is the big one, as I see myself in the sack with beautiful women of every race and usually more than one at a time. I even recruited the bikini-clad woman from yesterday's sunbathing exercise into my fantasies. Only now, in this new verision, I approach her, speak to her, and then seduce her.

Oh, you poor sap.

The scientists interviewed in the Alzheimer article refused to say that daydreaming leads to the disaese. So maybe I shouldn't be worrying about Alzheimer's down the road. Maybe I should be worried about the here and now: getting a job, getting an apartment, finding a girlfriend and actually finishing the novel and shooting a film

I do want to use my mind in a more productive manner--even writing this blog is something than just laying around staring at the ceiling. I want to clear out all the junk in my brain, and make my mind work like a computer.

And I believe you need some kind of craziness to come up with ideas, no matter what field you're in. You can't program everything.

So I'll keep writing, play more Scrabble, remain fit, and, most importantly, socialize as much as possible. At least if I lose all my marbles I'll have gone out happy.

So all I have to do is dream...if I want--hey, wait a minute, I already wrote that. Uh-oh...

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