Hope is not a plan with Parkinson's

Hope is not a plan, but every great plan gives you hope. Someone is taking a big swing at you. Do you hope they miss and stand there or do you take action and duck? Do you hope to win the lottery or do you…..wait that one is just hope.  A speeding car is coming at you. You don’t hope it stops. You move.  Those elaborate traps the bad guys always used to try to kill James Bond, you know the ones -- they always left him in the room alone and hoped it would work out. 007 did not hope the laser would stop. He planned ahead by wearing a watch with a laser or did it have a super magnet, no…. it was a girl he charmed; actually it might have been all three.  That’s why we have so many sequels, Bond always had a plan.

This brings me to the story of 300 hundred Spartans who got together while the rest of their country stood around and threw a big party to honor the local deities as the largest army in the world was coming to conquer their small city state and steal the Spartans secrets to perfect abs and chiseled physiques. Okay, you know what I am talking about if you saw the movie -- or it just might have been a little empire building by the Persians. Either way King Leonidas was not going to sit by and hope that the armies of Greece would have enough time to get mobilized and do something about it. He took 300 of his best warriors and headed out to slow down the oncoming Persian juggernaut. The plan was to get to a place called Thermopylae, “the hot gate”, a small pass where the overwhelming numbers of the Persians could be managed and valuable time could be bought. Now for all you history enthusiasts there was a very important naval battle being fought by the Athenian politician Themistocles and helping out the 300 were 700 Thespians and 400 Thebans contributing to the effort.  The Spartans fought together shoulder to shoulder, carried big shields and long spears. Their near unstoppable phalanx formation along with six pack abs and a win or die trying attitude made them the wrong Greeks to have picked a fight with. The Spartans were better trained, conditioned, and worked as a team. That’s how they got the job done.

Being proactive was the key to slowing down Persians, not sitting around and hoping things work out for the best. It’s easy to do nothing and hope someone else will get things done. It’s easy to be compliant, to accept your station in life, and simply exist. Now do not misunderstand me, I am a firm believer in hope. Hope is a positive state of mind. Hope is what gets me up in the morning and allows all of us to think of a better future. We need hope.       

Parkinson’s is our Persian army. It is undefeated, it seems unstoppable, and it’s coming our way. We need a plan to slow down its effects until help arrives. I diet, work out, meditate, everything I can do to slow the effects of PD until a cure is found. I take a lesson from the Spartans. When facing overwhelming odds, get to a manageable place until help arrives. How did it work out for the brave 300? They bought precious time Greece needed to hand the Persians an epic defeat. We all hope that we will do the same to Parkinson’s. It also led to a great movie that inspires this Parkie to fight a little harder every time I watch it.  

I am Pat Younts and I Move to Live.

(Remember always consult your doctor to find the best plan for you.)