In his latest memoir, NO TIME LIKE THE FUTURE, actor/activist Michael J. Fox apprises readers of his most recent experiences with Parkinson’s disease, his career and aging --- topics he has usually met with his trademark optimism, which is now put to the test after a series of health setbacks.

After living with Parkinson’s disease for nearly 30 years, Fox had adjusted to his new normal with upbeat aplomb. After a tumor was discovered nestled on his spinal cord in 2018, a lengthy and complicated surgery left him back at square one, learning how to walk all over again after many months of physical therapy. For years, he had been the brave face of his disease (his first memoir was titled LUCKY MAN), but his innate optimism was beginning to wear a little thin. What do you do when the eternal optimist says, “Make lemons into lemonade? Screw it --- I’m out of the lemonade business.”

In August 2018, while alone in his New York City apartment, Fox falls in his kitchen. In the span of years that he has lived with Parkinson’s, he has taken more than his share of tumbles. But as he describes, “I’ve been through a lot, suffered the slings and arrows. But for some reason, this just feels personal.” After all this time, he has weathered his diagnosis, his loss of movement, his tremors --- all of it --- with dignity and grace. But this recent injury, only a few months after his spinal surgery and the months of rehab and physical therapy, has shaken his typical optimism: “Optimism has always been the norm for me. But perhaps with age, or through the rigors of this experience, I now find it easier to drift into melancholy; to lose my enthusiasm for the task at hand.” Is this particular malaise he’s experiencing something that comes with age, or is it just circumstance? Can you be an optimist but also a realist? Fox wasn’t sure but was curious to find out if he could regain that normally sunny outlook he’d had up until now.

"[Fox] generously gives readers an honest peek into his daily life as he manages his disease and any other challenges that come his way, providing us with perhaps the most candid and authentic chronicle to date."

An aspiring actor in his native Canada, Fox left school in his junior year to head to Hollywood to pursue his dream of being a working actor like his namesake, Michael J. Pollard (Fox’s real middle name is Andrew; he thought the “J” would be a fun shout-out to the venerated character actor from such films as Bonnie & Clyde). It wasn’t too long before he started appearing weekly on the TV show “Family Ties,” where his Alex P. Keaton character, the young, yuppie Republican, endeared himself to audiences through his quick wit and comedic timing. In a few years, Fox was the star of the blockbuster Back to the Future movie franchise. He was just shy of 30, had a thriving film career, was married to actress Tracy Pollan (whom he met when she played his love interest on “Family Ties”), and had their first child, Sam, when he was diagnosed with young-onset Parkinson’s in 1991.

It would be a few more years before he went public with his diagnosis, as he and his family attempted to adapt to this new paradigm. Fox and Pollan went on to have three more children, and he continued to act where and when he could. He also started the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research in 2000; since its inception, it has raised more than $1 billion in funding for research.

As his disease progressed, Fox found it increasingly difficult to maintain his acting career: “Acting is what I do, and I needed to find a new way to do it. Instead of focusing on the notes I could no longer hit, I’d focus on my new instrument.” He chose more supporting roles in TV series like “Rescue Me” and “The Good Fight,” while also working at his foundation, spending time with his wife and growing children, and playing golf. Who takes up golf in their 40s, you might ask? With Parkinson’s no less? The incurable optimist Mike Fox, that’s who. But like everything else he attempts, he approached this one with his trademark positivity: “With balance issues, I am prone to falls, one of the few people who can injure himself while putting. Golf summons up the same resolve that I rely upon in managing my Parkinson’s.”

However, after the spinal surgery and the fall in his kitchen, the incurable optimist was finding his mindset drifting to the dark side: “There is no way to put a shine on my circumstance, as I have so many times in the past, publicly and privately. Positivism is a state of mind one achieves, and I am presently an underachiever. Have I oversold optimism as a panacea, commodified hope? Have I been an honest broker with the Parkinson’s community?... Over the coming months, I will feel a shift in my worldview, and struggle to believe in ideas that I’ve espoused for years…. My optimism is suddenly finite.”

How does one face the day-to-day when their optimism is challenged? It helps to have a loving support system. Pollan and their four children consistently try to normalize and brighten his world whenever possible: “It’s not that Tracy ‘feels my pain’; it’s that she acknowledges it, and would do anything to relieve it. We try to accept life on life’s terms. I’ve relied on Tracy’s acceptance more and more, as my own has begun to waver.”

Does accepting life on life’s terms mean you can’t be optimistic? Is it possible to navigate the arduous waters of chronic disease without hope? Fox thinks about the credo left to him by his late father-in-law, Stephen Pollan, who taught him this: “With gratitude, optimism becomes sustainable.” With much reflection, and physical therapy with great doctors and therapists, he is able to fashion a new mindset to handle whatever life throws at him. He generously gives readers an honest peek into his daily life as he manages his disease and any other challenges that come his way, providing us with perhaps the most candid and authentic chronicle to date.

Has Michael J. Fox’s optimism been restored? We’ll let the author have the last word: “Really, it comes down to gratitude. I am 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. Lemonade, anyone?”