February
18, 2016 4:06 PM
Michael J. Fox spoke to a full house at Bridges
Auditorium last Friday about life, before and after being diagnosed with
Parkinson’s disease.
The celebrated actor learned he had Parkinson’s, a
degenerative disorder that affects the brain cells responsible for planning and
controlling body movement, when he was 29. While medication offers some relief,
his symptoms—which include uncontrollable shaking and twitching—have gotten
progressively worse over the years.
It sounds pretty tragic. And yet, the actor insists his
life is better than it would have been if he never got sick.
One of the biggest lessons Mr. Fox has learned from from
Parkinson’s is how to relinquish control, a scary but necessary proposal. It
can be surprisingly liberating.
“What I couldn’t do was more freeing than what I could
do. I realized I could play anyone, as long as he had Parkinson’s,” he joked.
The appearance by Mr. Fox, who has a daughter attending
Pomona, coincided with the school’s annual parents weekend. He covered a lot of
ground in his hour-long talk, during which he fielded questions first by
neuroscience professor Nicole Weekes and then by students.
When Ms. Weekes asked if he supports the idea of
universal health care, he noted that he was born and raised in Canada, a
country where citizens are afforded medical coverage as a right. He can hardly
be blamed for finding the notion both familiar and feasible. He asserted that
all it would seem to require is for the very rich to pay a bit more in taxes.
“I’ve been to the Hamptons—I’ve seen the yachts. I just
think they can kick a little in,” he said.
He then talked about his experiences as an advocate for
Parkinson’s research, which have been by turns rewarding and frustrating.
In 1998, Mr. Fox testified before congress on the
importance of stem cell research. He was surprised by the vehemence of the
opposition.
The stem cells in question were from frozen human
embryos that were scheduled to be disposed, he noted. Rather than treating them
as refuse, he argued, why not use them for research with enormous potential to
help people with conditions like paralysis, Parkinson’s and cerebral palsy?
“We’re talking about people’s lives here,” he said.
Instead, the George W. Bush administration characterized
stem cell research as an assault on human lives, referring to the embryos as
“snowflake babies, which was such a George Bush thing to say,” Mr. Fox
marveled.
One of the most colorful moments of the stem-cell fight
was when conservative talk show host Rush Limbaugh imitated Mr. Fox, jerking
his body around as he insisted that the actor’s display of symptoms was “purely
an act” put on for congress.
“I wasn’t offended,” he said. “I just figured I must
have really pissed him off.”
President Bush implemented a policy in August of 2001
severely limiting federal funding for stem cell research. For the remainder of
his tenure, he used his veto power to override any legislative attempts to
loosen that policy.
In 2009, in one of his first executive acts, President
Barack Obama rescinded the legislation limiting federal funding for human stem
cell research. “In the end, I’m proud of my work,” Mr. Fox said.
Ms. Weekes shared some numbers that should also fill the
actor with pride. His Michael J. Fox Foundation has garnered an astonishing
$450 million towards Parkinson’s research, making it the largest nonprofit
funder of Parkinson’s disease research in the world.
Stem cell research may yield a treatment for
Parkinson’s, but that treatment will do little good if it’s tendered only after
the signs of the disorder present themselves.
Mr. Fox started showing symptoms of early-onset
Parkinson’s, beginning with a single, trembling finger, in 1991 when he was on
the set of the movie Doc Hollywood. By the time he was diagnosed a year later,
80 percent of the neurological function controlling body movement had been
compromised.
Since 2010, the Michael J. Fox Foundation has focused on
discovering biomarkers that can help people determine if they are genetically
predisposed to develop the disease. He and the scientists at work hope the
research will lead to the kind of early intervention Parkinson’s requires.
A lady had a baby in a tree
Mr. Fox’s story is a well-known one. He rose to fame
playing whip-smart Republican teen Alex P. Keaton in the long-running sitcom
Family Ties. Film success followed, including his starring turn in the Back to
the Future franchise.
Throughout the 1980s, he pushed himself hard and partied
even harder in a search for fulfillment and success. Fast cars, booze and all
manner of ‘80s-style excesses were the order of the day. “I was the prince of
Hollywood and digging it,” he said.
He began to get some perspective after Tracy Pollan, who
played his girlfriend on Family Ties, pointed out that his lifestyle was
putting his career and health in danger.
Ms. Pollan, who he married in 1988, said, “What are you
doing? You’re killing yourself.’”
Romance emerged from their longtime friendship, and Ms.
Pollan was pregnant within a month of their marriage. The couple went on to
have four children. It took a while for Mr. Fox to achieve balance, trading
compulsive work for introspection and engagement and curtailing the drinking
that initially ticked up after his diagnosis.
Family has since become all-important to Mr. Fox, who
shared a few chestnuts of parenting wisdom. One of these can be encapsulated in
the phrase: “A lady had a baby in a tree.”
After the Fox family welcomed three girls, he learned
something about the estrogen-charged quibbling that ensued. “When you hear your
wife and your daughters arguing in the kitchen, don’t go in there,” he said to
boisterous laughter from the audience.
When his girls were younger, they would sometimes
approach him with issues that seemed as inconsequential as they were highly
charged. “They’d come to me with these things, and I didn’t know how to answer
them,” Mr. Fox shared.
Then, he came across a news article that offered a
perspective on the kind of troubles that humans can face and overcome.
“A village had been flooded and there was torrential
flooding sweeping up animals, livestock and buildings and people,” he said.
“What happened was a lady had been swept up and was carried at a raucous pace
seaward. She was pregnant and she somehow managed to grab onto a tree branch.”
“She got up in a tree and actually delivered her baby,”
he continued. “She was rescued some hours later nursing the baby. Now whenever
the kids come to me with issues, I say, ‘A lady had a baby in a tree.’”
Mr. Fox feels it’s important to note that, when he’s not
medicated, he’s a wreck. It’s a reality of Parkinson’s and it’s the reason why
it’s essential that a cure be found.
Just getting up in the morning is a challenge. He wakes
up and his feet are cramped. He has to put on hard shoes to get his feet to
conform. Next, he shuffles to the bathroom where he takes a shower, sitting on
a little bench, and negotiates the difficulty of washing his hair. Mundane
tasks like brushing his teeth have become laborious.
Then he shuffles into the area where he gets dressed,
which is dominated by a mirror. “For a minute, I’ll look at myself, kind of all
crumpled up, shaking and wet, and say, ‘What are you smiling at?’”
Mr. Fox can sometimes rue the trivialities of daily
life—a transaction at a grocery store can seem overwhelming. Simply reaching
into a wallet and presenting a credit card can often be hindered by tremors.
“I hate transcactions,”? he said. “When my kids are with
me, I tell them, ‘You can get anything you want, as long as you handle the
transcaction.’”
Luckily, medication helps him to continue to speak to
people, as an advocate and an inspiration. He is still handsome and youthful in
appearance, and his speech—if occasionally slurred or halting—is marked by his
off-the-cuff wit.
It’s all about attitude, the thing that has kept him
going since, 26 years ago, he was told that his career would be over in a
decade and, soon after, he would be wheelchair-bound. “It’s not projecting into
a grim future that has made my present so wonderful,” he said.
Students proceeded to pose several questions to Mr. Fox,
one of which was pure, delicious silliness: “If you were a superhero, what
would your powers be?”
Mr. Fox pondered the question as thoughtfully as any
others at his Bridges appearance.
“I think I’d be a dog superhero. My ability would be to
save dogs in peril,” he said. And then he sang: “Here, I’ve come to save
the day.”
—Sarah Torribio
storribio@claremont-courier.com
https://www.claremont-courier.com/articles/news/t18311-fox#sthash.WZAJ8nMB.dpuf
