Here’s a two-for-one:
1. The Huffington Post just published an article titled “Why I Refuse to Give In to Parkinson’s Disease,” written by a fellow Parkie named Steve Alten. In the piece, he documents his initial reaction to getting Young Onset Parkinson’s and relates how he followed his own path to a better life. He now mixes low doses of “normal” PD meds (Sinemet, Azilect) with a vegetable extract he gets from Europe that offers similar benefits.
Chief quote:
No matter what, I refuse to accept this disease as anything other than a speed bump. As Dylan Thomas wrote, “Do not go gently into that good night… rage, rage against the dying of the light.”
2. OK, you know what that means. We reprint Dylan Thomas’ poem, which incidentally mentions the sun. It’s not a sonnet, but a villanelle. Tally ho!
Do not go gentle into that good night
Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Though wise men at their end know dark is right,
Because their words had forked no lightning they
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright
Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,
And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight
Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
And you, my father, there on the sad height,
Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray.
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
– Dylan Thomas
3. Bonus! Click here to hear Dylan Thomas read the poem!
