This original piece from contemporary Australian artist Tim Johns taps into two aspects of Parkinson’s that are difficult to communicate in words alone.
Firstly the on/off issue in which we can (at face value) be good or normal or high functioning or ON and then in the next 5 minutes be stumbling, slurring, confused or just what we call OFF.
The second is it highlighted a recent question I have been wrestling with : Does Parkinson’s kill you?
To which my, quintessentially kiwi, answer is “yeah, nah”
I have also decided that it doesn’t matter if I die of Parkinson’s - or cancer or heart disease.
What matters is that from the day we are diagnosed til we die we have to live with this “fuzzy”, ill-defined, thief of soul and light and joy. And this oil painting brought those two issues Into stark relief for me.
Thanks to EPDA for the story.
