Where we’re going we don’t need roads!

Back to the Future might easily be described as one if not my favorite movie of all time. It is for sure the film that has affected how I viewed all other films, I’m not entirely sure why or what about it captives me to such a degree but it does. Part of that magically hold the movie (and its two sequels) has over me is in part due to the charm of a Mr. Michael J. Fox. I was born the year that Back to the Future came out in theatres and though I can make no claim one way or the other that it was the first movie I saw in my entire life, I know it was among the first. Honestly I have no idea when the first time was that I met Marty McFly and Doc Brown they have always just seemed to exist with me. As I’ve grown as a person, as an academic, and as a professional my love and the intense effect of that one movie and that same actor seemed to have also grown. Everything I read about it now, or have read about it in the past just cement its place in my heart.

Taking all this into account, it would be no small surprise to anyone that one day back in April when I was wondering the Barnes and Noble at the Grove I sought out the latest memoir from Michael J. Fox. My respect for Michael J. Fox has expanded from that initial and everlasting crush/ attachment to Marty McFly to his other acting roles to in more recent years his gracious and courageous battle with Parkinson’s. Whenever I come across anything about him or his foundation in magazines, newspapers, and that electronic feed from yahoo that keeps me endlessly informed over everything I read it. So like I said it wasn’t strange that in April I was looking for his newest book just recently having arrived on the shelves. I was particularly intrigued because of the title of the book (I can hear all the groaning about judging a book from it’s cover/ or title as the case may be, but first impressions are no joking matter my friends) Always Looking Up, The Adventures of an Incurable Optimist. I’m an optimist at heart though no one who met me past my junior year of high school will completely agree, I was and always will be. So the title of the book amused me to no end and I was intrigued to know what he had to say about life.

It has taken me six months to read Always Looking Up and not because it was fascinating, intelligent and witty on the contrary I hoped for and more. No it took me six months to read his book because parts of it hit all too close to home for me.  I purchased the book in April, consequently that was the same month where I decided to ultimately give notice to the Disney Stores. Being a person in search of a muse (or as some might see it, in constant need of being entertained) I immediately started reading. Within the first four pages I knew that this book had found me, not the other way around. For being a book about optimism there is a large amount of journey to the happiness in it, the storm of sadness before the peaceful calm of happiness. I read up until page 25 before I had to stop the first time and leave the book aside for a few days. On page 24 there was a heart wrenching parallelism about Michael J. Fox the actor and his character on Spin City. It was the moment that Fox was leaving acting behind him because of his health and subsequently his character was leaving a job that was his life because of a scandal. No use pretending it didn’t affect me not only because it was just sad, but also because it was like looking into a mirror a little bit. No I wasn’t leaving my place with the stores due to some life impacting illness, but I was leaving because of circumstances beyond my control and it was the company that was my life.

So naturally I stopped reading it at that moment. The next time I picked it up I read on through the first section and there is wonderfully painted picture of the greats that Michael J. Fox has met and worked with in his life. Describing his afternoon with Lance Armstrong and his being in the mist of the Tour de France with Robin Williams is nothing short of incredible. I couldn’t read the words fast enough, or enough times to truly capture what the experience of working or talking to Muhammad Ali must have been liked for him. But believe me you get a taste of some amazing interactions. The next time I stopped reading was when Michael J. Fox discussed the storm cloud of how he was accused of faking his P.D. in the commercial. I remembered this event, it angered me when it happened, it still angered me when I read about it. And it truly made me sad when I read about his mom's reaction to the whole situation. So I put it down again and didn't pick it up again for four months. When I did pick it up again, I didn't put it down until I read the last line. 

          

I have pages of quotes written down from happy-go-lucky advice, to witty wisdom, to funny jokes. So in the words of Mr. Michael J. Fox himself: "We are where we are. If we keep moving, we'll be someplace else. We'll know when we  get there." So you out there without the book, move to a bookstore or your local library and find a copy and then read it, it will move you to a new place!