<h1>A mask of gold hides all deformities. </h1>

Remember Muhammad Ali at the Oscars, or some awards show, standing on stage with George Forman and accepting an award for "When They Were Kings"? George showed pride and confidence in accepting the award; Muhammad showed no emotion; his face a mask of indifference. Only the sparkle in his eyes betrayed his sentiments - pride and joy.

Among a multitude of symptoms, Ali has the Parkinson's mask.

Ali

A friend of mine wrote me "I heard choirs are a way to go for pd.... the singing works on air passages. One friend swears by it."

Sounded suspicious. How could singing help? I decided to research the topic, "parkinson's choir", and discovered this CBC article" Parkinson's choir may help 'masked face syndrome'and voice problems Singing appears to help people with movement disorder regain facial expression".

Interesting. I dug deeper and found this short video. It describes my situation to a "T". 8 weeks of speech therapy but neglected to practise at home. Thus my voice is going but now I can see a remedy - singing. Unfortunately it is too late for Ali. 30 or so years after diagnosis, Ali is severely disabled, has extreme difficulty speaking, and is confined to a wheelchair. His days of "float like a butterfly and sting like a bee" are long gone, but at age 73, he is still "The Greatest". President Obama described Muhammad as, "The man who believes real success comes when we rise after we fall".

Early on in my journey, my wife commented that I needed to show more emotion. She took my picture and I described myself as looking like Otzi, the mummified iceman. Fortunately, my momentary dance with the mask has passed. And singing! My singing voice could sterilize a frog at 30 feet. However, I better get that old guitar tuned up and when nobody is in the house, I will sing at the top of my voice to ward away the PD demons.

Oh, and I keep getting up after every time PD tries to put me down. Here's to Muhammad Ali.