197 years ago, Dr. James Parkinson published, “An Essay on
the Shaking Palsy”. Today his former
home is marked with a simple plaque. The
search for that plaque was the focus of run #43/44 in my journey.
In the Preface to the article, Dr. Parkinson
wrote, “The disease is of long duration: to connect, therefore, the symptoms
which occur in its later stages with those which mark its commencement, requires
a continuance of observation…these advantages the writer has had the
opportunities of availing himself, and has hence been led particularly to
observe”. Many times throughout my
travels and since, I’ve been asked what was the most important thing that I
learned along the way. Similar to Dr.
Parkinson’s advantage of observing those with “shaking palsy” over time, the
most important discovery I made was the result of the advantage of observing so
much of the world in such a short time.
