I happen to be a Parkinson’s patient. I’m not fearful of my condition or my future – but if someone is looking in my eyes for fear, then they see their own fear reflected back at them.
Going public was a difficult decision, and I had misgivings. My subjective experience was now an objective fact in the wider world. It didn’t belong to just me anymore – though I quickly learned that it hadn’t belonged to just me in the first place. More than a million Americans and their families were going through the same thing; some openly, some in secret due to concerns of being misunderstood and marginalized.
Frankly, my height or lack thereof never bothered me much. Although there is no doubt that it has contributed to a certain mental toughness. I’ve made the most of the head start one gains from being underestimated.
I’ve dropped my pebble in the ocean, and hopefully; throughout the course of the day; millions of others will drop theirs in too. No single one of us knows which pebble causes the wave to crest, but each of us, quite rightly, believes that it might be ours; an act of faith.
The only unavailable choice was whether or not to have Parkinson’s. Everything else was up to me.
A lighthouse... speaks to the guiding nature of hope. By equal turns, it illuminates and darkens, so the way forward can be chosen in the light, and trusted in the darkness.
This is why the license plates say Beautiful British Columbia, and I realized just how much I would miss it. But all this natural beauty exists only in response to rain, I reminded myself, and the occasional day of technicolor spectacle was bought and paid for with weeks and weeks of dull, damp gray. I wasn’t going to miss the gray. If.
I’m sure there are many other Forrest Gump moments that I’m forgetting. I don’t mention them as boasts, but rather as evidence of how ridiculously lucky I have been to have lived the life that I have.
Still, what’s happened before and what may happen later can’t be as important as what’s happening now.
Every failure I have considered my own, but every success has been shared.
Being in control of your own destiny is a myth – and wouldn’t be half as much fun anyway. Pay attention to what’s happening around you. Read the book before you see the movie. Remember, though you, alone, are responsible for your own happiness, it’s still okay to feel responsible for someone else’s.
This message is so simple, yet it gets forgotten. The people living with the condition are the experts.
Carry on. If you’re going to do something, just do it.
So much of what’s important in life seems to sneak up on me. So much time and energy invested in getting ready to go someplace, and then getting there, that the sensation of being there is a revelation.
Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall.
When I visit the past now, it is for wisdom and experience, not for regret or shame.
If you don’t take risks, there’s no room for luck. I took a chance. I got lucky.
We can all take something positive from the class of 2020; to accept what has happened in the past, to embrace the present, and to remain open to the probability that it will get better in the future. I hear echoes of Stephen Pollan in that advice: With gratitude, optimism becomes sustainable.
We can all take something positive from the class of 2020; to accept what has happened in the past, to embrace the present, and to remain open to the probability that it will get better in the future.
I was happy as a clam. But who wants to be a clam?
With gratitude, optimism becomes sustainable.