Life With MS Can Have ‘Beautiful Limitations’

Please allow me to begin this post by saying that I find nothing about living with multiple sclerosis to be a “good thing”, a “blessing” in any way or something for which I am “thankful”. MS did not “give” me anything positive, I am not a “better person” because of this disease and I would give back and relearn every lesson I have gained ten times over if I could matriculate in another of life’s hard knocks courses.

I say those things - repeat them really, as I’ve said them over and over again - because what I’m about to write about might sound a little Pollyanna to those who do not know me as an MS Pragmatist (I don’t see the glass as half-empty or half-full; I just try to figure out how I can live on half a glass…)
In an interview I heard over the weekend, a young, Spanish jazz musician was talking about her use of the traditional gaita (pronounced “GY-tah”), a version of the bagpipe from her native region of Galicia, in her music.
Cristina Pato spoke of trying to record the famous Miles Davis contemplative and (I’ll attest to it as a former trumpet player) difficult composition, “Blue & Green”, using an instrument which just doesn’t have all of the notes Davis’ trumpet could produce.
Pato spoke of the “constant challenge I have with my instrument…” and BOY couldn’t I understand that. Not as a former hornsman, but rather as a person living with a disease that robs the control of my instrument… my body.
And t...

Source: Life with MS - January 22, 2013 Category: Other Conditions Authors: admin Tags: MS Politics mobility limitations President Obama Source Type: blogs