No Time Like the Future: An Optimist Considers Mortality

by Michael J. Fox

Bhutan’s forbidding topography and landlocked status hinders the country’s trade with other nations—not that Bhutan regards trade in traditional terms. While it does measure its GNP (Gross National Product), it is the GNH (Gross National Happiness) that is of greater importance to its people, government, and king. Bhutan is the only country known to measure happiness by this metric.

“If we were all to put our worst problem inside of a circle and then allowed to draw one out, we’d all take our own problem back.”

love that she clearly gets it. She’s responsive, not reactive.

He instinctively understands that the situation does not call for him to rescue me, but for me to reach out to him. It’s a subtle distinction, but a big difference. I rest my hand on Will’s arm for a second or two, then let go and carry on.

Absurd can be fantastic, as long as we agree that it’s absurd.

I’m living the life of a retired person, a decade too soon. My world is contracting, not expanding. In terms of the space-time continuum, I’m closer to my exit than to my entrance point.

“If you imagine the worst-case scenario, and it actually happens, you’ve lived it twice.”

The core lesson Stephen left with me was this: With gratitude, optimism becomes sustainable.

There’s a homily that suggests that “the opposite of fear is faith.” Recalling the plaque on my father-in-law’s desk—Professional Fear Remover—I consider the role gratitude played in his life. I’m beginning to see that faith, or fear’s opposite, can be expressed as gratitude, which has always been the bedrock of my optimism. I’ve spent sufficient time and energy dissecting what went wrong; I’m ready to reconnect with everything that went right.

When I visit the past now, it is for wisdom and experience, not for regret or shame. I don’t attempt to erase it, only to accept it. Whatever my physical circumstances are today, I will deal with them and remain present. If I fall, I will rise up. As for the future, I haven’t been there yet. I only know that I have one. Until I don’t. The last thing we run out of is the future.

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?

We can all take something positive from the class of 2020; to accept what has happened in the past, to embrace the present, and to remain open to the probability that it will get better in the future. I hear echoes of Stephen Pollan in that advice: With gratitude, optimism becomes sustainable.