Shaky Foot Wisdom
XXIV.
Trip the Light Fantastic
January 22, 2021
“Come, and trip it as you go / On the light fantastic toe.” L’Allegro, John Milton
Funny that I should mention trip to reference where I am at along this Parkinson’s journey. Though the thought and quote may refer to movement and dance, what I refer to is rather the dance of steps, stops, and stutters in my mind.
Though some nights drift in and out of dream’s distraction, I do have restful nights to be thankful for. Yet often the afternoon hours bring a deep fatigue exactly at the chosen hours of my four-hour work from home day.
Beyond that, I experience the greatest delights and joys in the times I verily “trip the light fantastic” in my mind. The calm I feel belies what rational or irrational fears that I may have about where this path leads. As the world and especially the country’s body politic has changed to this devout snowflake’s pleasure, the taste of hope in the air is palpable. The United States’ first woman Vice-President, Madame Kamala Devi Harris, has broken many glass ceilings that for too long have been a barrier to reaching equality’s peak.
I see on the horizon a mighty shift coming, where the Pandemic is finally defeated and each of us can return to living lives of a new somewhat normal, where we can move about freely unmasked. Even in this writing I am aware of the metaphor of literally being unmasked, not just removing the need to wear a cloth covering over our collective mouth and noses yet the need to hide the depth of our humanity from each other.
I remain inspired to “Come, and trip it as you go / On the light fantastic toe.”
Won’t you come and dance with me?
