I think luo has something important to teach us in the face of dementia. In the face of deficit, decline, and death we try hard to cling on. But the lesson of the little word luo is that maybe the path of resurrection lies in letting go. If death is starting now, maybe resurrection can start now too.<\/p>\n
Perhaps it\u2019s only when we let go of who and what our loved one was that we can receive who they are now. Perhaps only when we find ways to enjoy who they are now can we reverse the deficit and the decline, because we stop assuming they\u2019re moving away from something good and start appreciating that they\u2019re moving into something new.<\/p>\n
Dementia is not a living death. It\u2019s an invitation to see how we can remain the same person yet take on new and rather different characteristics. In that sense it\u2019s a training in resurrection, in which we shall be changed but still recognizably ourselves. Like resurrection, we can\u2019t experience it unless we find ways to let go, to let loose, to be released and forgiven. God welcomes us into eternal life not by keeping a tight hold on us but by letting us go. The challenge for us in dementia is to find ways that we can do the same.<\/p>\n