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MEMORANDUM TO RUTLAND REGIONAL PARKINSON’S SUPPORT GROUP From: Elliott Haynes To: Members and friends of RRPSG Subject: April 9 meeting Date: April 2, l998 Thursday, April 9, will be a Red Letter day for all of us who attend this session of our support group. Our speaker on that occasion, Michael Noonan, is beyond question one of the warmest, most compelling figures Polly and I have encountered since we entered the strange and wonderful world of Parkinsonianism. Michael is a rare combination of teacher, scholar, mental health counselor and devout Christian. For five years he was a Roman Catholic priest in New York City, giving up the cloth owing to a difference he had with the Pope. During his career he has taught psychology at three colleges, and is today Director of Outpatient Services for the Mental Health Services of Southeastern Vermont, based in Brattleboro. This bare-bone description does little to convey the experience you will receive of meeting this man, whom Polly and I first encountered last summer at a meeting of Dick and Ann Jennings’ PSG in Springfield. Like any good counselor, he is a listener, and his quiet demeanor and gentle wit and humor bespeak a deeply caring person. During the Springfield meeting he was asked to explain his beautiful injunction “to respect the silence of nature.” His convictions regarding nature, silence, and their meaning, came through strongly, not despite but precisely because of the quiet nature of his response. His simple words and the unhurried manner in which he spoke them carried such power, in fact, that I was reminded, as I wrote him later, “of the contest between a reknowned Shakespearian actor and an unimpressive clergyman over who could read the Twenty Third Psalm with the greatest effect. The actor led off, throwing all his famous oratorical skills into a thrilling performance. The little minister followed, and his simple eloquence, reflecting the deep faith and goodness of the man held the audience spellbound. In the hush that followed, the actor rose, and going over to the clergyman, made a deep bow.” I look forward to seeing him and you members and friends on the ninth, from 2:00 to 4:00PM, in the library of Trinity Episcopal Church, 85 West Street in downtown Rutland. And let me express my gratitude now to Ray Frazier for getting this mailing out. We are all indebted to cyberbuff Ray for putting us and our Email and other addresses on line.