A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Future

A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Future
By Michael J. Fox

Michael J. Fox will long be remembered as Alex Keaton in the 80’s sitcom, Family Ties, and the star of the science fiction movie Back to the Future. Others may remember him from the later sitcom Spin City or the fact that he developed Parkinson’s Disease and became a leading advocate for finding a cure. But I was pleasantly surprised to find that he is a supremely articulate and literate individual as well.

A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Future is a very short book, only 100 pages, succinct but thoughtful. It is geared towards high school graduates, embarking on a college education, but sums up some important points we could all stand to be reminded about.

Fox has several honorary degrees, “which puts me on equal academic footing with the Scarecrow from The Wizard of Oz.” A high school dropout with a purpose, he finally took his GED when his son was ready to enter kindergarten.

“Just to reassure you, I’m not one of those swaggering jerks who, having achieved success after dropping out of school, promotes the fiction that a higher education is a complete waste of time. All the same, I sometimes employ my lack of academic standing as a subtle goad to those who would make character judgments based solely on one’s alma mater or post-graduate degree.” Nevertheless, he is an avid reader and learner.

Self deprecating in every respect, he pulls lessons from the school of hard knocks in economics, literature, physics, political science and geography. He also extols the virtues of finding mentors along the way.

Speaking of what his time on Family Ties and the Executive Producer, Gary Goldberg, taught him he says, “Show up to work on time, learn my lines, respect the writers, strive with every performance, every scene, every line, to improve on what I had done before: these were the standards that Gary expected me to meet. It was an ethic that I understood. It was basically my father’s.”

This could be applied to basically any work we do in life. With everything we do, strive to improve on what we have done before. His mentor taught him an equally important but perhaps more esoteric concept as well. “To this day, the word that comes to mind when I think of Gary is “gratitude.” None of us is entitled to anything. We get what we get, not because we want it or we deserve it or because it’s unfair if we don’t get it, but because we earn it, we respect it, and only if we share it do we keep it.” Profoundly simple.

At age thirty, he was diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease and told he would only be able to work for about ten more years. It certainly made him sit up and take notice of the fact that others go through such direction altering life changes too. “Life is good, and there’s no reason to think it won’t be – right up until the moment when everything explodes into a fireball of tiny, unrecognizable fragments, or it all goes skidding sideways, through the guardrail, over the embankment, and down the mountain. This will happen (and probably more than once).”

Fox took some detours but came to some conclusions that changed how he addressed the issue of his Parkinson’s. “The reality is that things change; the question is, how will I perceive that change, and am I willing to change along with it?”

He offers some life lessons in simple form. “Life is not linear. There will be detours along the way. For the curious, new clues will await at every turn and may keep pointing toward the chosen destination. Or maybe you’ll stumble upon information that will inspire you to change course altogether, delivering you to a future you never could have imagined.”

Unfortunately, those most in need of the truths he offers won’t recognize them until it hits them between the eyes. So, he offers one simple statement to sum it all up. Stay aware and, “Live to learn.”

I have heard friends sneer at books by celebrities but I have always believed everyone has a story to tell. You can't discount good advice simply because it comes from someone you believe to have the advantages in life. They have to deal with difficulties too. I wish the book had been longer but at least I know there is other writing he has done which I can look forward to.