Everyday Parkinson’s

As part of Parkinson’s Awareness Month, today is World Parkinson’s Day. It is also exactly one year since my first post as What’s Shaking Man. Every April I used to post updates on my Parkinson's for friends and family on social media every. This way I would only bore people with my Parkinson’s observations, whining, attention-seeking and boundary-less posts just once a year. Now I have taken an opposite approach. Parkinson’s is almost all I write about. Hopefully, I will avoid whiny and boundary-less posts. I’m OK with the observational and attention seeking posts. After all, nothing screams “Look at me” more than writing a blog.

What’s Shaking Man is my way of making Parkinson’s awareness a year-round endeavor. Not just April. It has always struck me as shortsighted that we only get a month. I have to live with PD every day of the year. This myopic perspective extends to other health conditions. Mental health (May), diabetes (November) and arthritis (October) only get a month a year. Some conditions only get weeks or days. World Cancer Day (February 4),  World Hepatitis Day (July 28) and Crohn’s and Colitis Awareness Week (December 1-7, 2023). I am sure people living with these want more than a day, a week or a month. I am also sure that there is at least one egocentric blogger writing about each of these conditions.

Speaking of egocentric bloggers, did you know there is a World Ego Awareness Day? Celebrated on May 11 each year, people are encouraged to reflect on how inflated their ego is and how it interacts with others egos. To encourage cooperation and decrease ego-based conflict. That definitely needs to be a year-round campaign. No war, no xenophobia, no -isms, no road rage, and no more blogs to read.