"Troubles Overcome are Good to Tell" -
Italian Proverb, from the writing of Primo Levi
Yikes, this blog is now just over a year old! The first post went up January 19, 2008. In the following time we've looked at everything from the Greatest Parkinson's Love Story Ever Told, to some of the dumbest things doctors say, when delivering a diagnosis of Parkinson's Disease.
Since I installed a hit counter about two weeks into the project, "Off and On" had a total of 2,695 visits (only half of which were me checking for comments) from 66 countries and territories all around the World. There have been visits from every continent but Antarctica, where the penguins are all in denial "Tremor? Nah, I'm just shivering, you idiot."
Here is a sample of visits from unexpected locales tallied for the year by my hit counter: Israel (8 visits), Malaysia (7 visits), Singapore (7 visits), Turkey (6 visits), China (4 visits), and let's not forget Iran, Bangladesh, Belarus and Jamaica, with one visit each.
Wow. Parkinson's Disease: Bringing the world together.
I hope, dear reader, that this has been valuable to you. It has certainly helped me to cope. Writing is a sort of deliberate thinking. It is a focused exploration which simultaneously creates ideas and reveals them. When I try to explain my thoughts and feelings to you, I come to understand them better myself. Or at least, it feels that way.
Just as important, your comments and even your silent visits, (which are currently running between 5-15 a day) tell me that there is solidarity and understanding out there that reaches around the Globe. That is heartening. I'm sorry that you who read this were dragged into the struggle, but it is good to know we do not struggle alone
What does the future hold? Dangerous question, but I can go at least this far: More trouble and more telling. Because not only are troubles overcome good to tell, telling is part of the overcoming.