Art & Parkinson’s
Confusion & Clarity
Slipping Away
Hal describes the slipping away of self, where words and actions can’t find their way out.
His words – and he knows this and complains of this – are becoming unmoored and are floating around like flotsam and jetsam. He can’t find the through-line. He goes deep into the ocean and gets lost among the luminescent fragments of life. It’s hard for him to find his way back up.
Being a partner in this disintegration, I’ve been learning how to let go of my need for coherence and just hang out with him down there with the creatures.
The Plight of Parkinson’s
“Parkinson’s interrupts the certainty of knowing,” Hal says. “The plight of Parkinson’s is needing to come up with strategies to learn about and accept what is unclear and confusing.” Like all of the sudden not speaking your own language and having to find a new way to communicate. Achieving a comfort level with chaos – not insisting on getting it right.
Hal says he is reporting from the front lines of “confuddledom,” where he is watching the ground beneath him become less and less sure.
Last night after watching a Netflix mystery show, Hal said, “It’s not just movies …. I don’t understand the characters in my own life. There are all these pieces of me – and they can’t find each other.