With Parkinson's, it's like you're in the middle of the street and you're stuck there in cement shoes and you know a bus is coming at you, but you don't know when. You think you can hear it rumbling, but you have a lot of time to think. And so you just don't live that moment of the bus hitting you until it happens. There's all kinds of room in that space.
Interpretation
The quote reflects the struggle of facing an inevitable challenge while dealing with a debilitating condition.
Michael J. Fox's quote illustrates the experience of living with Parkinson's disease, describing the feeling of being immobilized by fear and uncertainty as one faces the inevitable challenges ahead. It emphasizes the mental space one occupies while waiting for something unavoidable, allowing for reflection and an appreciation of the moments leading up to a significant event. This resonates with the idea of living in the present despite the foreboding nature of the future.
In practice
During a speech at a charity event focused on neurodegenerative diseases, this quote could effectively illustrate the emotional journey of patients.
I find as long as I acknowledge the truth of something, then that's it. I know what it is and then I can operate. But if I overestimate the downside of something or the challenge of something and I get too obsessed about the difficulty of it, then I don't leave enough room to be open to the upside, the possibility.
My whole life, meeting people is like a blind date, because I feel like they've already seen the video on me.
There are no moments you have frozen in amber. It's moving, it's changing, so appreciate what's good about right now and be ready for what's next.
There's always failure. And there's always disappointment. And there's always loss. But the secret is learning from the loss, and realizing that none of those holes are vacuums.
Certainly people have a lot tougher situations than I've had to deal with. But I will say we are all dying from the moment we are born. This is not just rehearsal.
I'm a dad, I'm a husband, I'm an activist, I'm a writer and I'm just a student of the world.
We want to go in for suffering, and there may be torture. If we put the women in front the Government may hesitate to inflict on us all the penalty that they might otherwise inflict.
The hero is brave in deeds as well as words.
If he must be alone, he would make solitude his armor.
I cannot bear to live where there is so much injustice and I cannot do something about it. What kind of a torturous life is that?
If I profess with loudest voice and clearest exposition every portion of the truth of God except that little point which the world and the Devil are at that moment attacking, I am not confessing Christ, however boldly I may be professing Christ. Where the battle rages, there the loyalty of the soldier is proved, and to be steady on all the battlefield besides, is mere flight and disgrace if he flinches at that point.
What the Anzac legend did do, by the bravery and sacrifice of our troops, was reinforce our own cultural notions of independence, mateship, and ingenuity. Of resilience and courage in adversity.
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