Love in the Times of Corona

    My grandmother once told me the story of how she fell into a puddle of mud and lost her boots while looking for her doll in the snow. The first time she told me the story, I listened captivated by the hilarity that ensued when the baker and the tailor of the Shtetl grabbed my grandmother by her armpits and pulled her out of the snowy puddle, leaving her boots forever stuck in the hard ice. The second time she told me the story, I laughed at her description of the doll and of the red noses of the village’s kids that peeked under their fluffy hats. The third time she tried to tell me that story, I cut her off and said,“Grandma, you’ve told this story a million time, already!”

    When my mom heard that, she pulled me aside and told me: “No matter how many times your Grandma repeats that same story, you will listen and you will learn something new.” I have carried that lesson from that moment onwards, through the rest of my nineteen years of life; I don’t know more than anyone else and I can learn from everyone, so I should make sure to listen.

    Recently I had the pleasure of listening to Debbie, the founder of Tikvah for Parkinson. Up until that moment my experience with Parkinson had been fairly limited to your standard reading of medical journals or to research for university and high school biology classes. Parkinson is a non-curable neurodegenerative disorder. In previous decades, medical textbooks described it as a “slow, horrible death.” Recently, the conventional medical consensus is that physical activity, especially activity that includes a cognitive component, can significantly slow the degenerative process. In other words, physical activity can significantly impact both longevity as well as the quality of life. In order to encourage Parkinson patients to live an active and healthy lifestyle, Debbie established Tikvah for Parkinson, the Jerusalem Parkinson organization. “Our program is based on three foundations: education/awareness; support/community; and a realistic program of action. In doing this, we’ve created a true Parkinson community.”

    Right now, the international community faces dire times due to the Covid-19 pandemic, as well as from the resulting social isolation. With social media taking center stage in our lives, the generational gap between a young adult such as myself and an already established older woman such as Debbie has never seemed larger. The younger generation is more proficient with technology but faces burnout syndrome due to the increasing lack of work-life balance that ensued once our jobs took permanent residence inside our homes. Meanwhile, the older generation lives in fear of contagion and find themselves unable to reach their friends and families without the aid of technology.

    In an effort to breach this generational gap and introduce you to the Tikvah For Parkinson community, I invite you to participate in the ongoing reflections about mine and Debbie’s conversations regarding the struggles that this pandemic brings to the Israeli Parkinson community, dealing with anxiety and burn out syndrome during the pandemic, and how to feel a part of a community while we stand miles apart.

    Let us find love in the times of Corona.

    Until next week,

    Jenni.