We can slip the surley bonds of PD

Did I ever think I might get a degenerative neurological problem? Not at all. It came as quite an unpleasant surprise. Do I think I will lose my ability to walk? Nope.

The plane! The Plane!

I like flying, particularly when I get a chance to go business class (about 5 times in total) but it can have its moments and if you have read earlier posts, you will know about at least one annoying trip but, here is another that occurred around 20 years ago and should have scared the bejeezus out of me. I am trying here to create a metaphor for my fight with PD. To make it easier for me, I will write in the present tense.

We are on a plane flying to Houston. I am a track coach and along with another couple of coaches, we are taking around 20 athletes to Texas to train and compete. We are looking forward to the heat (-10C to +25C in 4/5 hours). I am sitting and quietly looking out the window at this huge city. We will land shortly. I see a small two seater heading toward the plane. I think it will hit us. Just at the last minute, the pilot veers away. I can see his face, sort of. He is shaking his head.

"Geez," I say to the coach next to me, "I thought he was going to hit us."

We change places so he can look out the window. Across the aisle is a young female athlete (I think she is 16). I look past her and, in her window, I see another small plane, maybe the same one, fly close to us. A few minutes pass and finally our pilot announces something to the fact that a light on the dashboard (or whatever it is called in a plane) had led the crew to believe that the nose gear had not come down.

"We just had a flyby and that small plane you might have noticed has confirmed that the gear has come down but not all the way. It is in a kind of "bent knee" configuration and could collapse when we hit the runway. Just to be safe, the cabin staff will show you the crash position and I will tell you when to assume it, just to be safe." his voice showed no fear. He was kind of matter of fact about the problem.

Just to be safe! We could crash and be dead in a couple of minutes. I try getting into the crash position but I am too stiff to assume anything. I look across the aisle to the young girl who is practising the proper position. She sees me sitting up.

"Has this ever happened to you?" she asks, the fear flaring in her eyes."

"Once before. Don't worry it will be all right," I answer.

She seems to relax, but keeps the position. The cabin crew announces we are about to land and everyone should be in the "position". The chatter in the cabin gives way to silence as the plane starts to fall. I am sitting up and I can see firetrucks heading toward us as we hit the runway. I think they will prove to be useless if we catch on fire. We stop quickly, some distance from the terminal. The nose gear holds and after the ground crew does something to that now infamous gear, we go on our way. We are safe. Funny thing is, as we leave the plane, the young athlete asks the female flight attendant if this has happened to her before. "Not in 30 years!". She smiles at me and we say goodbye.

So, where is the metaphor?

Alone in my hotel room I thought about why I was so calm during the event. I had sat straight the whole time. I came to 2 conclusions

1. Bad things don't happen to me.
2. when they do happen, I handle them.

I realized that throughout the ordeal, my brain had simply told my body that everything would be alright and, if not, I would never realize it because I would have been dead.

Get my metaphor? OK, OK, forget about the "dead" part. I don't think about bad things. As I look to my future, I know everything will be alright.