Raindrops keep fallin' on my head

You would think we are living in Vancouver!! It is raining again. A near torrential rainfall. I wouldn't mind it so much if only the rain would fall upward. It's that damn gravity in action.

I know, I know, quit harping. Get a life. Accept your circumstances.

I'll have you know,some people equate whining with creativity so how about just one more little complaint

Any whining I have done concerning the ravages of PD was put in perspective this week, when a friend lost his battle with ALS. What an insidious condition that is! He was the second person I knew that had been afflicted with "Lou Gehrig's".

The first person lived with ALS for all of the 10 years I worked with her. She got progressively weaker and when I last heard, she was completely dependent on others. During our acquaintance, she was strong and met her future with dignity and a certain joie de vivre, despite the "disease". One day, I found her leaning against the wall in a hallway and she was crying. I stopped to see what I could do. She said something about feeling weak and tired, then she pulled herself together, told me she was OK and she went down to the staff room with her head held high. What a champion! I know she survived (maybe is still surviving) much longer than most victims of ALS.

The second person lasted a couple of years following diagnosis, or so I am told. Unfortunately, I had not taken the time to get together with him and hadn't seen him for 10 years or more. He was a real gentle man and very talented. I remember the first time he dared to get on a stage in a smokey pub circa 1966. He was nervous but ready. He started off with a Gordon Lightfoot song but stumbled over the words half way through. He stopped playing (guitar), apologized to the small crowd (gathering) of people who were more interested in the next beer than his problems. He restarted the song and when he was finished, the drinkers asked for more. He obliged, the drinkers listened, and the evening turned out well. He was that charming.

Kind of makes a little rain irrelevant, doesn't it? And. if I am being honest, PD is small pickings compared to ALS. I will probably still be a whiner but at least I will try, probably without success, to accept my circumstances. In the words of author, Mary Ann Shaffer “I much prefer whining to counting my blessings.”

"When you have a father and a mother who work all their lives so you can have an education and build your body - it's a blessing. When you have a wife who has been a tower of strength and shown more courage than you dreamed existed - that's the finest I know.
So I close in saying that I might have been given a bad break, but I've got an awful lot to live for." - Lou Gehrig (farewell address. 1939)