Parkinson's Disease according to editor of Vanity Fair, Michael Kinsley in a conversation with Diane Rehm (formerly with NPR)

Old Age: A Beginners Guide is a book about Parkinson's Disease by founder of Slate magazine, Michael Kinsley, editor at Vanity Fair whose conversation with Diane Rehm was aired on National Public Radio. He shared what he knows about living and about being diagnosed with Parkinson's. According to Kinsley, there are two ways to approach illness or disease:

• Embrace it, join a community of those experiencing it and advocate for solutions to problems regarding it.

• Ignore and hide it, which does not allow emotions to be expressed.

I have a third way to approach this illness: Consider it a blessing, rather than a curse and make positive changes in your diet and lifestyle, embrace or settle issues with loved ones, if possible. If impossible to reconcile differences, find a way to accept the relationship as it is and focus on building happiness supported by a network of people who accept and support you just as you are.

According to Michael Kinsley, Parkinson's Disease doesn't necessarily lead to demise. It can lead to disability but it's not a fatal disease. This means, you still have to learn to live a healthy life with it. This includes positive thinking, positive experiences and paying attention to overall health and emotional well-being.

                       I've been very very lucky and I have very minor symptoms. My eye twitches and                                  that's close to the major side-effect that I have. What else?  I have trouble sleeping, I               have skin problems, and it's a wide variety of other [side-effects or symptoms].

Michael Kinsley is thankful for the things that are good in his life as he grows older and learns to live with his disease.  He says that growing old is not simply a matter of longevity. It's if you can hold on to your cognition. It's a matter of finding ways to live a good life.

(c) MHJohnson

See also: https://www.k94life.org

Although they shout it to the mountaintops, “Black Lives Matter,” self-worth is something many Black people have yet to believe.

Human suffering is everywhere, but I don't worry about life circumstances because I understand we live according to our personal karmic footprint. If we created good causes in our past lives, our negative karma is reduced. If we committed negative acts against humanity, animals or Nature, our negative karma is increased. Christianity teaches, “You reap what you sow.” Karma is the same concept. The universal law of Cause and Effect never gets it wrong.

It's hard to accept that we created the situation we're in today, so much easier to blame it on parents, teachers, significant others, or on the Black human race. Everyone blames the Black human race, even members of the Black human race, themselves.

Let's face it, humans can be more vicious than animals. Animals kill in order to survive. Humans kill for the power, the sport of it, or to keep up with their Joneses. Animals, not so much. If animals feel their survival threatened, they will offer a response. If they feel driven to feed a family, then someone has got to die and only the strong survive. Such is not the case with people, especially Black people. We kill each other for sport.

I love the color of blackness—blue/black warm, tattered yet standing strong, beautiful in appearance, in strength, in swagger and style. Black people are emulated and admired (secretly) all over the world. But if they only believed. Since they don't believe they are beautiful or powerful, self-hatred looms large (secretly) in the black community and self-hatred gets expressed in the way we kill each other off, physically or spiritually. “Black lives matter,” is just a slogan because we are so enamored with the notion of appearing rich, feeling important, or living white that we are willing to kill for it.

Whether we kill bodies, the human soul or dreams and aspirations, Black people do this to each other on a daily basis. They feel it's not a crime against humanity because—are black people human?  Whether acquiring worldly possessions, attaining political power, or building self-esteem through bullying, all can lead to the indiscriminate killings that humans inflict on each other, and Black people excel at this, just as they excel at anything else they try to achieve. Everyone likes the phrase, “Black lives matter,” but given the opportunity to undermine or destroy another black life or another black spirit, far too many black people take this opportunity. Black lives matter only so much.

The human race has much to learn from the animal kingdom. You don't kill unless you must. You don't kill once the other is down. I think everyone knows the truth:  In the long run, the white race has nothing to fear. Although Black people are beautiful, strong and resilient and although they shout it to the mountaintops, “Black Lives Matter,”  self-worth is something many Black people  have yet to believe. It'll take lifetimes to kill off the Black human spirit and soul so until then, white people can rest easy. Black people must first destroy each other; then they'll get around to the white human race. So what does this all have to do with karma? 
Do I really need to ask?

We are always of two minds, but which has the greatest influence on us--the rational or the emotional?

There are two mental processes that represent our thinking: the rational and the emotional mind. The rational thinking system is driven by detached observation, logic, assessment, and reasoning while the emotional thinking system is driven by an immediate feeling response, such as compassion. But which has the greatest influence on us?

Although we might think we're being influenced by only one type of thinking at any given time, studies show we are equally controlled by both. However, if problem-solving is too complex or information is incomplete, the rational mind becomes overworked and overwhelmed making it difficult to make decisions or solve problems. So when in doubt, our emotional brain takes charge and we make decisions based on emotional responses.

The emotional system enables us to respond quickly, even if it means trouble, while the rational system allows us to use logic and reason. The National Institutes of Health explains how complex our emotional system can be. Our emotional responses are immediate, but the rational thinking system causes us to step back and analyze the situation. When our two ways of responding are in balance, our emotional responses become more regulated and analytical.


A Toastmasters online resource provides the following explanation of how emotional and rational thinking processes work:

We are persuaded by reason, but we are moved by emotion. Several studies conclude that up to 90 percent of the decisions we make are based on emotion....

Emotional reactions and logical thinking go hand in hand when it comes to problem-solving, but when the problem requires too much rational thought, emotions win 90 percent of the time. This means, if there are too many factors involved or if the situation is too complicated, an emotional response will prevail over logical thinking. 

We need both types of thinking, rational and emotional, but we need to be aware of how the brain works when we are overwhelmed. If we trust the workings of our brain, very often, the emotional or intuitive response is the best response. 
           
(c) updated:  mhjohnson (2017)
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1201429/.
http://www.westsidetoastmasters.com. From "The Influence of Emotional Subject Matter on Logical Reading," Journal of General Psychology 34 (1946): 127-151.