There’s research circulating right now that I cannot stop thinking about. Scientists studying the biology of autism and the biology of Alzheimer’s have found that the two conditions share dozens of the same genes — the machinery your brain uses to build connections in early childhood overlaps with the machinery that breaks down decades later in dementia.
One condition shapes how a brain forms its first memories. The other shapes how a brain loses them. Researchers are only now realizing those two processes were never as separate as we assumed.
Sit with that for a second: the same biology that makes your child’s mind remarkable may, decades from now, be the biology that decides what they get to keep.
I did not grow up around a lot of conversation about what gets remembered and what gets lost. I grew up around people who treated memory as something you protect on purpose — a story, a name, a practice, passed hand to hand because nobody was guaranteed to remember it for you.
What do you want to make sure never depends on biology to survive?
That question is the whole reason Sacred Recall exists — wearable, physical reminders of the things you have decided are too important to risk forgetting.
Shop Sacred Recall → alanijacobfoundation.org/sacred-recall
If this made you want to go write something down before you forget it — good. That was the point.
The Alani Jacob Foundation is the public-facing initiative founded by Salima Levy, dedicated to ancestral memory, disability advocacy, and community transformation. Learn more at alanijacobfoundation.org.