Tedtalk by Robin Morgan

For this neuro note I decided to listen to a Tedtalk. I listened to the video “4 Powerful Poems of Parkinson’s and Growing Older” by Robin Morgan. Robin Morgan herself was diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease 5 years ago. Once she was diagnosed she found out that women were often left out of medication trials and felt like it was her duty to help women have more of a presence in these trials. She read four of her poems in this video: “No Signs of Struggle,” “I’m Donating my Brain to Science,” “The Ghost Light,” and “This Dark Hour.” I am going to say a little bit about my favorite one of these- “No Signs of Struggle.” In this poem, she says “growing small requires enormity of will” and describes different things that a person with Parkinson’s deals with such as being the “new kid on the block” when in a room with others with Parkinson’s disease and the “irritating help from those who love you.” Since my Poppa had Parkinson’s I have wondered what it is like to have it and what goes through the person’s mind. I never thought about the person with Parkinson’s being irritated by their family all trying to help but I can understand it. I know my family was always helping my Poppa and I am sure some of it annoyed him or bugged him since he was not able to do it on his own. I also never thought about how it would be to go into a room where you know that everybody else in the room has gone through the same thing. I imagine it would be very hard to look at people further into their Parkinson’s journey than you and realize that is where you will be in time. It would be like looking into a glass ball to see your future. When she said that “growing small requires enormity of will,” at first it didn’t make sense to me but the more that I thought about it the more sense it made. It takes will power to know that you are going to grow small and become “less” than you are now. I think it would be so easy to give up and not have the will to push yourself forward when you know what your future holds. I enjoyed this Tedtalk and liked how it was first-hand experience about what a person thinks going through Parkinson’s Disease.

Morgan, R. (2015, May). 4 Powerful Poems about Parkinson’s and Growing Older [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.ted.com/talks/robin_morgan_4_powerful_poems_about_parkinson_s_and_growing_older?utm_source=tedcomshare&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=tedspread