"Give it to me straight doctor; I can take it"

I believe I am somewhere in the initial stage of stage 2*. It has crept up on me, not unexpectedly, I have known all along stage 2 is just part of my journey with my bete noir. Let's see: I have a definite tremor in both hands. I walk at glacial speed. I get dizzy, not really "dizzy", but something akin to it - a feeling of unease when I stand and walk and to top it all off, a final indignity, I have to eat my peas with a spoon!. The medication keeps the obvious symptoms under control, but it wears off more rapidly than before.

Yep, that's stage 2 for sure, Oddly, it doesn't really bother me much. I am such an optimist. I have a "feeling" everything will be OK and if it isn't, well, c'est la vie.

A friend of of mine in the music business remarked that the most optimistic people are musicians. They don't care too much about money, they just want to play their music and are optimistic that someone, somewhere, will hear it and want to hear more. They see a sunny future. There is something to learn in that sort of optimism.

But when the future is fading to darkness, how can someone in my condition, knowing the inevitable, remain optimistic. Well, consider the alternative, I could be a pessimist and brood about the future, but that would make me weak and deprive me of a good, and almost normal, life. My optimism gives me strength and the knowledge that a cure will be found, sooner not later

I am pretty sure it was Abe Lincoln who said that we can complain that rose bushes have thorns or we can rejoice that thorn bushes have roses. I can't add anything to that. Join me in my reckless optimism; You will find that it feels better.

"My life has been a series of well-orchestrated accidents; I've always suffered from hallucinogenic optimism."

*Stage two: In the second stage of Parkinson's disease, the person's symptoms are bilateral, affecting both limbs and both sides of the body. The person usually encounters problems walking or maintaining balance, and the inability to complete normal physical tasks becomes more apparent. WebMD

quote by successful internet entrepreneur, Evan Williams