No Time Like The Future: An Optimist Considers Mortality Quotes
"I think owning your burdens is half the battle."
"The person most responsible for my entrée into the golfing world was Ed Levy."
"Like every gladiator out there on the killing fields, the uncles really only give a shit about their game, not yours or mine."
"From childhood into adulthood, I continued to exploit my physicality, not only for fun, but for profit."
"I used to defy gravity on a daily basis, and I could run like a quarter horse."
"Mine is not a mental disorder or an emotional one, although these issues can develop."
"For someone for whom motion equals emotion, vibrancy, and relevance, it’s a lesson in humility."
"It can be exhausting. Sometimes I’m 'on' during the examinations, and sometimes I’m 'off,' all of which is duly observed and noted."
"The joy is not in overcoming or defeating it; instead, it’s in surviving it, and settling bets at the nineteenth hole."
"Physical tasks are made more difficult by the need to break them down into all of their components."
"It’s exhausting to parse out what is Parkinson’s, and what is attributable to other factors."
"I have to show up—although it would be so easy not to."
"I am like a receptacle—a hamper suddenly filled with used beach towels, none of them mine."
"If you don’t take risks, there’s no room for luck."
"One man’s passivity is another man’s resignation."
"It may be that the most difficult, miraculous thing we do, physically, is to walk."
"That kind of physical rescue from an imminent fall is often mirrored by an emotional rescue, in the form of support from my family."
"We all naturally adjust to obstacles, and visual and physical stimuli, in our own way."
"With PD and the aftermath of the surgery, something as simple as remaining upright is often sabotaged by a rogue army of misfiring neurons."
"Will to Walk: When I first met my PT, Will, I immediately knew two things about the guy: One, he was determined to get me walking again safely; and two, he had been, at some point, an actor or performer."
"Over the next two months, we do everything from the basics—stretching, core work, getting in and out of chairs—to obstacle courses and ball tosses (without toppling), all in pursuit of the holy grail: walking independently."
"The truth is, I never master the cane. I have trouble negotiating my own two legs, and now I have a third. How do I make this work? I’m captain of my own ship; I don’t need an extra oar."
"REM sleep brings strange nightmares and a few sweet dreams. In some, I can’t move; I am paralyzed. In others, I’m as able-bodied as I was as a kid."
"Frank, a nice enough guy, is my nighttime aide. An avid biker, he parks his Harley in front of our building."
"What is remarkable to me about this time period—from the ICU, to rehab at Johns Hopkins, and the return to New York for more physical therapy—is how microscopic my world has become."
"I’m a single-cell organism in a petri dish, under observation twenty-four hours a day."
"Parkinson’s has robbed me of the luxury of spontaneity. I can’t initiate any new activity without a careful assessment of my physical circumstance and mental alertness."
"The work is steady and intense. Out of frustration, I balk at certain exercises, but he insists that I persist."
"I know we’re all here to wish Mike a happy birthday. But I want to say something else, too."
"I answer the questions or reorder the words, whatever is required. There’s a bizarre element included in all of this: I’m in a small room, two doors down from where a half-dozen patients are working intently with their therapists, and I’m screaming at the top of my lungs."
"The injury to my arm will have consequences. Dr. Galatz tells me later that the stress of the orthopedic surgery alone will weaken me."
"In my case, I have to examine the hard truth: What made me skip down the hallway to the kitchen, as if it was all fine, when I’d been in a wheelchair six weeks earlier?"
"It’s time to understand my circumstances more clearly."
"The events of 2018 have been a crucible: a gauntlet I needed to walk, or, more precisely, learn to walk."
"That’s life: the leopard you see; the one you don’t see; and the one that prowls stealthily through your dark places."
"Only a foolish optimist can deny the dark realities of the moment."
"Yesterday, upon the stair, I met a man who wasn’t there."
"Parkinson’s, for obvious reasons, is primarily thought of as a movement disorder; resting tremor, slowness, or bradykinesia."
"A Parkinsonian condition I rarely contemplated before now, much less spoke of, is cognitive change: loss of memory, confusion, delusions, and dementia."
"I don’t have to worry about Hitler or Castro assessing my vulnerabilities and weaknesses. I’m just a retired actor who wants to go to a concert with his wife and daughters."
"I don’t wanna live like this, but I don’t wanna die."
"It’s harder for a guy like Jimmy to reveal his diagnosis than it was for me—and it was definitely hard for me, so I can just imagine how it was for him."