Nothing stays the same. Some of you will remember and even miss the days of what was. Remember screen test patterns *  the fall of the innovative company, General Magic * the magic of hit toy, Teddy Ruxpin * no more Friday night rush to Blockbuster Video *  the love of the video game arcade * the hilarity of Celebrity Death Match * the intrigue of the cartoon, Jonny Quest * the wonder and excitement of going into a magic store * or having ice cream in NYC at the long gone ritzy and elegant NYC ice cream parlor, Rumplemayer’s, *  the lessons of Fractured Fairy Tales, and the teachings of School House Rock * the breakthrough of cassette tapes and the frustration of finding your song on an 8 track * the challenge of finding stored computer files on cassettes and floppy discs * the disappointment of Al Capone’s vault and new Coke * the loss of childhood candy with real sugar and real ingredients without fillers and fake stuff, corn sweetener or xylitol, sorbitol, or dyes * when there was no Web access and you actually talked to librarians and experts on the phone or by mail * when you typed code of computer language out of a book to develop a game with very limited features for hours only to have to retype it again, because you missed a comma or a character—making for retyping of hours of editing * only having access to music and pictures to what you bought in the Record Bar or Tower Records and pictures that you took on your disc camera or instant Polaroid * when disco died and country was cool and real * remembering television stations signing off at night to end their day of broadcasting and there were only 3 stations to choose from because cable wasn’t created * books were treasured, revered, and read as a choice of education and entertainment but they didn’t rival television because many of the books were better than lots of the programming * when radio preceded television (I was too young) but I do remember listening to years of American Top 40 with Casey Kasem and hours of radio, both day and late into the night * a small handheld Sony portable television made television viewing mobile * when people met in the classified ads * when infomercials were new and Mr. Microphone and the Pocket Fisherman reeled you in.

Change is inevitable. From my experience, people with Parkinson’s disease are not wild about change. I am not big on change, but I try to embrace innovations and new technology, as best as I can. Some changes are easier than others. Flexibility and resilience can go a long way with Parkinson’s. Life has changed in a rapid and dramatic manner. Our lives will change as will the rules of how we interact with the world and those close to us. For the foreseeable future, we must envision the welfare of others and see that we mask ourselves to prevent the spread of the contagion and minimize danger to those at risk.