What would you fight for? It’s not just a rhetorical question, or a 60-second infomercial, posed by my Alma Mater during football season on a typical Saturday afternoon. It’s meant to challenge our response to the unmet needs in our neighborhood, our nation, and around the world. What is it that pulls at your heart-strings that would get you to respond to this call to action?
At the risk of making those that bleed green and white cringe, this is what makes me proud to be an alum of the University of Notre Dame. What would I fight for? this single question serves as a reminder that the world is much bigger, and there are needs that are greater, than my own.
To some degree or another, we live in our own bubbles, largely defined by our needs and of those around us. My bubble for the past few years has been Parkinson’s with more attention focused inward to the personal struggles than to touting advancements in treatments and the progress that has been made toward a cure.
What would I fight for? I would fight for a cure, but in the interim, I have to settle for advancing the message that there is hope. When I was first diagnosed, my neurologist told me that a cure was 5-10 years out. That was 5 years ago. I have not been holding my breath, but I am holding out hope. Not sitting idly by, but participating in the broader PD community along side of pharmaceutical companies, caregivers, researchers and doctors respected around the world.
I have friends that pass along news articles and video snippets that are an encouragement. The hospital in Israel that has had success using ultrasound to alleviate tremors is one reason to have hope. The doctor in Spain that discovered two major keys to the protection and natural increase in the level of dopamine; the depletion of which is at the root of PD. Both reasons for hope. I am sure that there are many more.
But wait, there is more…In my own back yard, there is a world-renowned research facility, Van Andel Medical Institute, that is at the forefront of research and is actively working toward a cure. One doctor that I have met, unaffiliated with this facility, has gone so far as saying that a cure may be found in Grand Rapids. The PD community has a friend and an ally in this community and has reason to be grateful to the Van Andel family for their vision and generosity in working towards the a cure for Parkinson’s. It’s something they are committed to fighting for.
What would I fight for? I would fight for the chance to encourage others that this is a battle worthy of waging, a fight deserving your attention. Odds are that you know someone, or will know, someone with PD. They will appreciate your willingness to walk along side of them and speak words of encouragement into their reality. Your actions will yield fruit in ways that you could never imagine.
What would you fight for? Yet another reason to overturn cars and burn couches? Or something more worthy of your talents and education?
Go Irish.
Are you coming, Sparty? Oh, and you can ditch the plastic sword. It’s not all that menacing!
Thanks for reading, liking and sharing.
Ivy is a little worried right now; she is having nightmares of an inflatable Sparty setting her bed on fire.
Al and his faithful, but vigilant, sidekick Ivy the wonder pup.