We are all Unwritten.

Natasha Beddingfield’s 2004 hit “Unwritten” is one of my favorite songs. The beat is magnetic and immediately gets me moving. There’s a yearning in her early vocals before we even start with the lyrics – and oh, those lyrics:

I am unwritten

Can't read my mind, I'm undefined

I'm just beginning

The pen's in my hand, ending unplanned

Beddingfield was just 22 when she wrote this song – just beginning herself – unwritten as it were. She said it was written with her younger brother, who was 14 at the time, in mind. It could, therefore, be dismissed as youthful bubblegum pop. But the thing is, the older I get, the more I love this song. 

I break tradition

Sometimes my tries, are outside the lines yeah, yeah

A big part of my connection to this song is because I have written writing into my life in such a deep way. The classes I teach as Cinema Therapy, which are ongoing and everyone may sign up for, are some of the most joyful and meaningful work I’ve ever done. The classes were developed and tested with the Parkinson’s disease community in mind during my PhD studies. Since graduating, we’ve seen the universal appeal and potential of the classes and that’s why we declare, we are all unwritten. 

No one else can feel it for you

Only you can let it in

No one else, no one else

Can speak the words on your lips

I have always considered myself a writer. I dreamed of it since high school. I studied it in my undergraduate years at San Diego State. I got deep training writing for the sports page of the college newspaper – damn did those editors make my copy bleed with red ink. As much as I loved sports and thought covering them would be my future, there was another calling.

Reaching for something in the distance

So close you can almost taste it

At UCLA, my first grad college experience, I learned a new kind of writing: screenplays. I spent the next five years in LA pursuing Hollywood dreams. A few of them even got realized in ways that I still don’t know that I even fully appreciate. Getting films made is HARD. I got three feature films made – two of them shot on actual film when that still mattered – and one released by a major distributor at that time, Artisan Entertainment. To see “The Playaz Court” on the shelves of Blockbuster, Hollywood Video and Walmart was incredibly validating.

Even as I was being written, I knew there was more. I never expected the more would include a PhD and running a nonprofit on behalf of the PD community. But my dad never expected to have PD. One of the first things we learned about PD is how much is unknown about it. 

Drench yourself in words unspoken

Live your life with arms wide open

Today is where your book begins

I can now add book author to my writing credits with Acceptance. It was a difficult and very daunting experience. Having it “out there” is exhilarating and scary. I’m thrilled to be done with it and worried as to whether or not I “got it right”. Will readers enjoy it? Will it matter? Was it an Exercise in futility? Whatever happens, it’s done. No one can take that part away. As for what’s next? I hope you’ll join us in the Cinema Therapy classes so I can help you explore, discover and share your story. We are all unwritten. And I know this for sure: we’re better when we’ve found and spoken our truths. It’s freedom. 

The rest is still unwritten, yeah

Originally Published on https://www.yesandexercise.org/

Robert Cochrane, PhD Yes, And...eXercise!

Dr. Robert Cochrane is a graduate of UNLV's Integrated Health Sciences department. He's researching the effect of improvisation and storytelling on Parkinson’s disease. He received grants from the Parkinson's Foundation and support from the Davis Phinney Foundation along the way. He is a popular, unique and high energy Keynote speaker, bringing joy, optimism and practical tools for people in the PD community to thrive today.

He has a background in filmmaking, with the Artisan Entertainment release, The Playaz Court, and two Stephen King-based short films among his credits. His father, Dan, was diagnosed with PD in 2001, which shifted Robert’s artistic lens to health. He made his first documentary, the award-winning Boys of Summer in 2004. There are two follow up films in the series with the fourth film coming in 2023.

He moved his family back to Walnut Creek, CA, where he grew up. He lives there with his beautiful wife, two teenagers who are, indeed, "all that" and is a proud care partner for his amazing parents.