One of the hardest parts of getting older? Pondering the ‘me’ in dementia | Larry F Slonaker

I watched my father lose some of his faculties. Now any signs of my own memory loss make me a bit paranoid

We've been witnessing a burgeoning obsession in the US lately with the effect ageing has on the human brain. This came to mind again when I was reading about the latest woes of Dianne Feinstein, who may have what's politely called cognitive decline". And of course every time Joe Biden misspeaks, his critics seize on it as a symptom of dementia.

I'm younger than Feinstein and Biden, but I'm also older than, gulp, almost 90% of Americans. As I plow into my 60s, I find myself awash in the boomer preoccupation over whether one has, or will eventually get, dementia. If you are in my demographic and not routinely self-examining for signs of dementia, that probably means you already have it. Otherwise, it's an introspective compulsion that, once unsealed, will soak into any aspect of everyday life.