Columns

If you have ever flown on an airplane, you have likely heard the flight attendant review the safety instructions. You were probably half-listening as you settled into your tiny seat, undoubtedly sitting next to a person with a severe cough and no mask. The attendants go through all the details…

The end of the holiday season and the beginning of a new year are always a time for reflection. As the first month of the year rushes past us, I wanted to pause and highlight some unexpected gifts from this holiday season. I’m fortunate to have wonderful friends and…

Air travel is hard, even if you do it frequently. You have to navigate busy places, make it past security, and then cram yourself into an airplane like a sardine in a can — and that’s all before you ever make it to your destination. After my family traveled to…

It was the first snow of the season here in northeastern Ohio. In the past, at the first sign of those white flakes, we would spend the evening with our kids watching our favorite winter movie, “Elf.” But our kids are grown and living in other cities now, so it’s…

I know I say it all the time, but Parkinson’s disease is just weird. It can affect you in strange ways you never imagined, like when you’re out in a crowd. When I was diagnosed, the only Parkinson’s disease symptoms I knew of were the visible ones.

A couple of years ago, one of the Parkinson’s organizations asked: “What good things have happened to you because of your Parkinson’s diagnosis?” I found this question really interesting, because I think most of us with this disease think that if anything good happens to us, it’s despite our…

I was diagnosed with early-onset Parkinson’s disease when I was just 36 years old. At that time, my life was moving quickly. By all accounts, I was headed toward the peak of my career and traveling most of the time, often internationally. I’d been married for just five years,…

Do you ever feel like screaming? On the inside, I scream fairly often. Usually, the theme is “You don’t understand!” and it’s in conjunction with some incident where it’s very clear that 1) the person doesn’t know me at all, and 2) all they can see is a shaky, slow,…

There’s a moment in every close basketball game that feels almost supernatural. The clock is ticking down, a desperate shot goes up, and in the space of a heartbeat, the whole arena goes silent. The ball is in the air. Will it go in? That thin slice of time —…

A little over 15 years ago, I started a new “job.” There was no interview, and the specific duties and time frame were unclear. Although I was probably not a very likely candidate, the job was mine, whether I liked it or not. What I knew about the job before…