Celebrity memoirs are usually popular reads because we get to learn about a celebrity’s life and career from their own mouth. But readers pick up actor Michael J. Fox’s books for a different reason. They want to know how he’s doing. And has his subtitles suggest, he’s not only doing fine, but he’s got a collection of life experiences to share and wisdom to impart. His writing goes way beyond the celebrity tell-all. They offer a witty, vulnerable, and unshakingly stable view of the world that we can all learn from and which transcends his acting career and Parkinson’s diagnosis. Below are five takeaways from Michael J. Fox’s latest memoir, No Time Like the Future: An Optimist Considers Mortality.
Optimism Doesn’t Mean Disillusionment
You know the type of people who are optimistic that “things will work out” or “this thing I want is going to happen” without ever really putting the work into improving their situation? Fox puts in the work. He’s optimistic because he arms himself with the preparation, determination, and practical mindset needed to achieve his goals.
On page one, he writes:
“I’ve long realized that control is out of the question; instead, I’ve settled for an understanding that requires adaptability and resilience.”
A disillusioned sense of optimism is annoying. A practical optimistic attitude is inspiring. And this mindset allows him to see the progress he has made, the symptoms that he has not yet had to endure, and the support system that helps him to climb his most challenging hurdles.
Some Miracle Drugs are Not in Pill Form
Travel is a big theme in No Time Like the Future. Like everyone who travels, Fox uses travel for work, for leisure, and for escape. But you can’t escape the symptoms of Parkinson’s…unless you’re in Bhutan.
In 2009, Fox and a film crew embarked on a mission to Bhutan to research its reputation as “the happiest country in Asia.” Piggybacking on the theme of his second memoir, Always Looking Up, Fox sought out to prove if the rumors were true.
An unexpected perk of this trip was discovering that his Parkinson’s symptoms subsided greatly. He had to remind himself to take his medication. He writes:
“Having Parkinson’s is being in constant flux; in and out, on and off…That feeling is absent in Bhutan; there is no ‘on’ and ‘off.’”
Whether it’s the environment, the positive vibes, or the idea of being so far from your normal routine, it’s hard to say. But the trip does wonders, providing a slight vacation from his physical limits. He even feels up to join the crew on a treacherous hike to a teahouse that sits on a cliff halfway to a Buddhist monastery that a small portion of the crew plan to film.
A hard tumble on the way down is laughed off, despite a potentially serious injury that rears its ugly head later. But it does nothing to diminish the triumph of making the hike in the first place.
Battling FOMO
Fox keeps track of the latest pop culture references, influencers, and vernacular. This is in part thanks to his kids. One acronym that really resonates with him is FOMO: Fear of Missing Out.
He recounts being on vacation and sitting by the pool all day while the rest of his family goes off in different directions. His physical limitations keep him relegated to one spot which becomes lonely, no matter how picturesque the view.
“We try to accept life on life’s terms,” he writes.
Fox encourages his family to go off and do their own thing. But he admits it’s frustrating being stuck at home base. There are frequent check-ins, and there’s no desire for them to stay put as much as the desire to be able to go with them.
He counters this with a story about a bout of turbulence jolting his wife awake during the flight home and immediately looking around for him when she sees he isn’t in his seat. Seeing her unconsciously put his needs before her own counters any feelings of abandonment that he might have felt while on vacation. His family is there when it counts, and he still gets around (at least pre-pandemic) pretty well despite his limitations.
The Skill, Risk and Luck Combination
Throughout his life, Fox has teetered between several risky decisions. In No Time Like the Future, the biggest obstacle chronicled deals with the removal of a paralyzing tumor on his spine. This tumor will likely paralyze him. However, so will the surgery required to remove it.
Fox thinks back to his decision to become an actor, one that takes an enormous amount of risk. But it also requires the skill to be able to do the job and the luck of being in the right place in front of the right person at the right time.
This combination, while ever-present in creative pursuits, applies to everyone’s life. Even in his pre-Hollywood life, Fox recounts choosing to get pummeled as the short kid on the lacrosse team because he loved the sport so much and eventually leaving school in 11th grade to pursue acting.
Later, he continues that streak of taking risks by acting well after his Parkinson’s diagnosis, playing a wide range of characters in guest spots on notable TV shows or even playing himself in one of the greatest episodes of Curb Your Enthusiasm. These stints not only allowed him to challenge his acting abilities, but it also won him awards, notoriety, and allowed him to continue to be seen as an actor, not a former celebrity with an incurable disease.
Backed up by a confidence in his abilities, willingness to take risk, and opening the door for luck, he was able to run towards a successful career and a happy home life. He states:
“If you don’t take risks, there’s no room for luck. I took a chance. I got lucky.”
Fear of the Unknown
The majority of the things that we worry about don’t ever come true, but that doesn’t keep us from worrying about them. Fox, despite his abundance of optimism, isn’t immune from worry. After all, he has been dealt blow after blow, from his Parkinson’s diagnosis to the tumor to the early death of his father and more recent death of his beloved father-in-law followed by a broken arm that nearly undoes all of the hard work he put into bouncing back from the back surgery. The next hurdle is always around the bend.
While on safari in Africa, his level-headed attitude is challenged when he and their tour guide are stuck in their broken-down truck near the watering hole at sunset. It’s a nerve-wracking experience intensified by an interaction with a leopard tree the previous day that sticks in his mind. Stuck at the watering hole with darkness approaching, he remembers:
“The leopard from the previous day hadn’t scared me. It was the leopard in the tree at twilight-the one that I didn’t see, the one that probably wasn’t even there – that scared me stupid.”
Whether the leopard attacks or not, it shouldn’t stop us from taking the safari in the first place. That sums up the message of No Time Like the Future in a nutshell.
What life lessons have memoirs or other books taught you? Leave your answers in the comments below!
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These are some really interesting lessons. Especially the skill, risk and luck combination. Thanks for sharing.