Appreciating simple things

Visits to the neurologist treating my late-onset Multiple Sclerosis routinely include a short series of questions to assess my memory and baseline cognition:  what day and date is it, who is the President of the United States, who was the previous President, who was the one before that.  On television such questions can appear so obvious and simple as to invite amusement or derision.  The first time one has to stop and think about each answer, it is a sobering, humbling and somewhat embarrassing experience.  I was more or less on my game this morning and managed to answer all four questions without conducting a quick, silent, self-double-check.  (I nearly referred to POTUS 44 as Barack Hussein Osama but caught myself before the errant consonant passed my lips.  I knew who I meant, and had not needed to give it any thought, so I was happy.)

Replaying the visit in my mind this evening, I realized that, if asked, I could have recited the Presidents' full names from Joseph Robinette Biden, Jr., back through Dwight David Eisenhower, who was serving his second term when I was born.  As recently as eight years ago (when my first physical symptoms of MS appeared) or even just three years ago (when my diagnosis was finally made and I began to notice the beginning of mild cognitive symptoms), I would have considered the ability to perform such recitation of trivia to be ... well ... trivial.  No more.