Back to The Defiant Few ←Suffering Did Not Make Me Kinder. It Made Me Tempted to Keep Score.
Thirty-five years with Parkinson’s gave me perspective, but perspective becomes poison when I use my pain to disqualify somebody else’s.
There is no medal ceremony at the Suffering Olympics, but I have occasionally arrived dressed for it.
Thirty-five years with Parkinson’s gives me a strong résumé in the involuntary adversity department. I did not apply, the benefits package is insulting and the retirement plan appears to be more Parkinson’s. Still, after enough years, it becomes tempting to treat endurance like seniority. Somebody complains about a bad week, a difficult morning or a body that has inconvenienced them for forty-eight hours, and a small, ugly part of me wants to clear its throat and ask whether they have considered suffering professionally.