Parkinson's disease: Does it have to be all downhill?

A Christian Science perspective.

My world got smaller four simple words from a father in New Zealand to explain in a poem to his children how he felt after being diagnosed with Parkinsons disease.

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Many more have gained some sense of the effect of this condition from Michael J. Fox, star of the Back to the Future trilogy. He became the most famous face of the disease when he disclosed his condition in 1998 and launched a successful Foundation for Parkinsons Research two years later.

Wittily terming himself an incurable optimist, the actors world looks far from smaller. In addition to being a father of four and directing his primary focus and energies toward his foundation, Mr. Fox continues acting, has written bestselling books, and is launching a sitcom in which he plays a newsman persuaded to return to work despite having Parkinsons.

Beyond that continuing career trajectory, Fox exudes qualities that inspire: humor, commitment, humility, generosity, love, and that optimism.

These are indomitable spiritual qualities that truly define us all. Perhaps theyre the kind of qualities that that New Zealand dad was thinking of when, following a litany of examples of how his world had shrunk, his poem defiantly concluded: I may be smaller, slower ... but Im still me!

You could say our essence our essential, divine goodness remains undiminished, even if the body is dancing to a different tune. But might it be possible that a better understanding of that underlying essence could even help reharmonize mind and body?

Perhaps Fox felt a touch of that when he took a video crew on a search to explore the basis for optimism. When their travels took them to the Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan, Fox said he felt there was something special with these people, something special with the way they live their lives, something special about how they look at things. And, remarkably, he felt something special happening in his body, too. He said: Ever since Ive been in Bhutan my symptoms have been really diminished.

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Parkinson's disease: Does it have to be all downhill?