A book review: Michael J. Fox on Parkinson’s and optimism
Michael J. Fox is a hero to a lot of people, but for many of us who share his Parkinson’s, he’s a special guy.
Three decades after being diagnosed at age 29, he tirelessly advocates for a cure for the disease that robbed him of a long acting career. The foundation that he started has raised a stunning $2 billion for research.
With his swaying movements, stammering speech, and hunched posture, does he hide out and let others do the work?
No. He unabashedly gets up in front of crowds and cameras – playing music with rock bands, accepting achievement awards, and whooping it up with late night and early morning show hosts (41 appearances with David Letterman alone!).
He does this without complaining or feeling sorry for himself. When he falls (literally) he does what it takes to get back on his feet.
You get the picture. Did I say he’s special?
Keeping it positive
This indomitable spirit becomes is the underlying theme of his fourth book, “No Time Like the Future: An Optimist Considers Mortality.”
The memoir has been out since 2020, but if you haven’t read it, I recommend you do – whether you have Parkinson’s, know someone with Parkinson’s, or are just a human being slogging through your own murky waters of life.
Fox takes readers through one of his biggest challenges. Already dealing with advanced symptoms of Parkinson’s, he undergoes emergency surgery to remove a growth on his spinal cord. It is dangerous but successful. Then, during his recovery, he falls and breaks his arm badly.
It was a low point for Fox. Hubris was the cause of his fall, he admits, as he believed too much that he was ready to be on his own when he fell. He feels shame, begins to question his honesty, wonders if his optimism has been oversold. “Positivism is a state of mind one achieves, and I am presently an underachiever,” he thought at the time.
Learning from experience
Believing that “the more unexpected something is, the more there is to learn from it,” Fox describes his slow crawl back to his pre-surgery state.
He faces his reality – that you don’t get better from Parkinson’s – but vows to deal with his current symptoms.
He knows he still has a future but accepts mortality with his characteristic wit: “The last thing we run out of is the future,” he quips.
Then Fox remembers something his father-in-law, Stephen Pollan, taught him: With gratitude, optimism is sustainable.
“Really, it comes down to gratitude. I’m grateful for all of it – every bad break, every wrong turn, and the unexpected losses – because they’re real. It puts into sharp relief the joy, the accomplishments, the overwhelming love of my family. I can be both a realist and an optimist.”
His writing is punchy, direct, and poignant, but never preachy. Fox’s optimism hits peaks and valleys during his experience, but in the end he settles on an “I can do this” frame of mind.
Picture of Parkinson’s
I could relate to how Fox uses his “Frankenstein arm with its 18-inch scar” to illustrate one of the difficulties of living with a complicated disease like Parkinson’s:
He explains that X-rays of a broken arm show exactly what’s wrong, and later they can show proof of healing. With Parkinson’s, you cannot see “evidence of cell death or misfiring neurons.” There’s no X-ray image to show what’s going on inside you.
“Everyone in this war on PD wants to pull that photo up on our iPhones,” he says. He goes on to say that community is vital to help patients learn from each other and then educate their friends and family about Parkinson’s.
Living it, he gets it. He gets what people with Parkinson’s face, and what they need. His voice gives hope like no one else’s can. Because of his contributions, for me, having Parkinson’s disease is a wee bit more tolerable.
And you can bet I’m grateful for that.
“His writing is punchy, direct, and poignant, but never preachy.” – that made me want to read the book!
I hope you do!