Come with me if you want to live

It’s more than a meme to me.

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By Teresa Swartz Roberts

Blog Post 60. Copyright 2024

“Come with me if you want to live.”

This catchphrase was first uttered By Kyle Reese, a soldier from the future, in the 1984 film The Terminator.

That’s the way I hear the voices of Parkinson’s sometimes. It’s as though I have both the Terminator and his nemesis in my head. The only way I’m going to survive is by following an armed stranger. The Terminator is there to kill me. So the shooter is on my side. It’s counterintuitive. But I have to follow . Or die.

That’s what I thought at first. When I was diagnosed, I ran away from Parkinson’s. I didn’t want to know anything about it. Not while I was having my medical miracle with carbidopa levodopa and my Big and Loud therapies. Then my disease process accelerated. In other words, my Parkinson’s advanced and my symptoms could not be ignored. That’s when I started realizing that I should follow Parkinson’s. I should let it tell me which battles to fight and where to spend my resources.

I’m not talking about surrendering.

In the second Terminator movie, it is the Terminator himself who says, “Come with me if you want to live.” He has changed. He has been changed by the future.

 Sarah Connor, the main character, must make a complete U-turn. And instead of running away from the Terminator, she must run alongside him. And follow him. 

I have always been an ear learner. I hear words in my head when I read. It slows me down, but it does help me understand. So I have conversations with myself. And I have conversations with Parkinson’s. I sometimes think of it as another person—or two. Maybe I’m a little disturbed. Or maybe the fact that I have chosen to follow the Terminator is what has saved me so far.

Notice that the line is not, “Come with me if you don’t want to die.”  It is “Come with me if you want to live.”

I want to live.

The main lesson Parkinson’s has taught me so far is to adapt. Be ready to move in new directions, even make a U-turn.  Just go. If you have to do it with a cane, you do it with a cane. If you have to do it with a walker, you do it with a walker. If you have to do it in a wheelchair, you do it in a wheelchair. But you do it. You go.

I no longer listen to the voice that tells me that I can do whatever I set my mind to. My body and my disease have more control than I want to admit. I’m happier when I recognize my limitations and work within them to find joy in my life. I need to keep making progress by working with the disease rather than banging my head against it. I plan to keep going.

Come with me if you want to live.