Vox Populi
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Video: Parkinson’s Together
The Art of Breaking / Breaking into Art
Running time: 8 minutes
Carol Ober: For a long time, I had been wanting to create a series of portraits of my husband, who is living with Parkinson’s disease. Portraits where I honor Hal as a person – his strength and his vulnerability. And portraits where I express how it feels for me to be both a witness and a care partner in this.
It’s so easy to see any person with a disability as the other. This is true both more and less when it’s someone you’re close to. At one moment, I’m his wife. I’m seeing him as an equal, sharing my day, eager to hear his thoughts about something in my life. The next moment, I’m his caregiver. Seeing him as the other, someone I feel responsible for, a different species from me.
So I struggle daily with how to cross the divide. And how to create images that resonate without violating his dignity and our connection.
When I got home from my walk this morning, Hal was standing in the bathroom, drying himself off after his shower. He said, totally unsolicited and somewhat triumphantly, “Let joy be unconfined!” We laughed. He had said it with just the right touch of irony. And that made us laugh, bringing us joy. And so it goes around here.
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“Between the mud and the stars.”
What a beautiful honest film.
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I lost Fred in 2010 yo Parkinson’s. He was a writer and a punster and so much of this describes him, describes us. I needed a good cry. Thank you.
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Thank you for sharing this, Barbara.
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Carol and Hal, thank you for your bravery…Thank you for your beauty.
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Yes. Thank you, Louise!
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This is powerful and beautiful, showing how art can help pull us through the pain and “crumbling.” I have Parkinson’s also, though not advanced. There are one million of us in the United States. Everyone’s Parkinson’s is different. Writing poems helps sustain my spirit.
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“Writing poems helps sustain my spirit” Thanks, William. This line made my day.
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Very nice
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Just so.
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