Some confusion with Confucius, Nabokov and just for your erudition, a touch of Plato

Confucius, the great Chinese philosopher, wrote that "words are the voice of the heart".  In my world these days, words might not be the voice of the heart. I doubt that they are, but I am not sure I understand what Confucius meant.  He sounds uplifting.  Since I am not in the same realm as Confucius, I am unable to comprehend his philosophy but I have to say that at this time, my words are not the voice of the heart but rather my words are the voice of the reptilian part of my brain .  To be precise, my words are  the voice of the primal instinct of survival, the voice of trepidation.

All is not well in my household.  I have PD and my wife is suffering the effects of chemotherapy.  Life can be a bitch sometimes but we avoid speaking of the future and we count ourselves lucky for our past and present lives.  We seem to be handling our situations with grace and optimism.  With this in mind, I learned to speak again because I might have something to say as life improves.

My voice is coming back. My voice therapist has helped me to understand the decibel level I need to use to be heard. I try to maintain that level and only slip into my soft voice a few times each day. So now, I can be heard but unfortunately, at the moment, I have nothing to say. I can't talk about PD or cancer so all that is left is gossip about football and hockey. Only the jocks want to hear my thoughts on those topics.

 Ignore all the philosophy stuff because, believe it or not, this entry is about speech and parkinson's.  It is about how to find your lost voice only to have nothing to say,

 We suffer from two problems:

          1) quiet, soft voice.  Nobody can hear what we have to say.

          2) We have problems with word finding.

I have solved the first.  If you are a person with parkinson's and have something to say, I highly recommend LSVT Loud.  Check it out on Youtube. If you take it seriously, it will work and you won't be hearing "Whatzatt. Whadyasay?". Try it; you will like it.

 I have yet to solve the second.

                         I think like a genius, I write like a distinguished author, 
                         and I speak like a child. (Vladimir Nabokov)

I fear I am not a genius; I don't write like a distinguished author, but I do speak like a child.  Word finding haunts my speech but not my writing.  What to do?  What to do?  Well, I will find simpler substitute words and take the chance I will sound like a child.   At least my babble will be heard.

The other solution to problem #2 is to remain silent..."Wise men speak because they have something to say; Fools because they have to say something." (Plato)

Speaking of low talkers, I am watching Kiefer Sutherland's new series, Designated Survivor. It is a good show, but I have to keep turning the sound up. Why does that man whisper most of his lines? He did it in 24 too. Darned annoying.

Speak up Kiefer, I need to follow the plot and I can't do that if I can't hear you.  A little LSVT training might be warranted.

I have no more to say on this topic.  I have run out of words.