Learning from an old brain

As my brain slows down with age, I am able for some reason to notice its actions better than before.

For example, I turn right at the top of our street and see a deer out of the corner of my eye. At least that’s what my perceptual mechanism does before “I” immediately correct this report from “below”: it’s a neighbor’s sign in the shape of a moose.

This morning I opened up the Wall Street Journal and placed it on our kitchen table along with the New York Times. Here’s what I saw:

My brain reported The Real Wall Street Journal! That was enough to focus my attention on the page and realize where the Real had come from.

When I was younger, I suspect that I overrode erroneous reports so quickly that I didn’t become conscious of the process as often as I do now. Or maybe I’m just more interested in the working of our brains than I used to be.