Originally Posted by Bob Dawson

That's a strange thing about Parkinson's. It seems that the symptoms are so varied, and so deeply connected with the self, that lots of people have no idea what we are going through and what is happening to us. And even people close to us can misjudge us in devastating ways.
But also Parkinson's attracts a lot of very kind people; the truly generous ones who don't really understand our disease, but they understand our pain and that it is physical, emotional, spiritual in nature and that it is a nasty Beast but I am still me: that person over there shaking and unable to put on his coat - that's me. I am me with a ludicrous disease, but I am still me, and sometimes I have to remind people of that.
With Parkinson's, we get to see the best and the worst of human conduct. It is not a journey I wanted to take, and it is not a journey I would want anyone else to take, but I have no choice, we are in our canoes headed into the rapids, and we know that somewhere ahead there is a huge waterfall, and we get to see a lot of amazing things as we get caught in the current. It's a life experience, profound and wide and heavy and huge, and as said above, I would not wish it on anyone, but I have met a lot of special people and been through just about everything since I got pulled in by the current. I am not saying it is fun, but it is not nothing. It is real life, very crunchy, very powerful, and it is a great vantage point from which to observe the universe, and from which to take a gentle look at the human race, and all the people, all the guests on earth, one by one, and how they live their lives; and the extent to which some miss the whole point; and the surprising number of givers of care, right out there in the middle of it, day after day; and the best thing we did in one neuro waiting room was we got a big screen and put on Charlie Chaplin movies for the PWP in the waiting room, and then we started a thing about how we are all actors, just PRETENDING to have Parkinson's, just like MJFox. So we do amuse ourselves as much as we can. Parkinson's changes the way you see things. That's quite the side effect.