Lucky Man

It's been a while since I read a book and I am fairly flying through this one, Lucky Man. It's Michael J Fox's story about his battle with Parkinson's Disease. This is what the back cover says:
When Michael J Fox stunned the world by announcing that he had Parkinson's Disease, a degenerative neurological condition, he had been secretly fighting it for seven years. By the time the public started grieving for him, he had stopped grieving for himself...
As a huge fan of the Back To The Future trilogy and of Spin City (though to a lesser extent) I felt this memoir was a must-read and I'm about 90 pages away from finishing it. I'll pass on some final thoughts once that is done.
But I feel that this could be the most important book I have read in some time. The way he has dealt with, or not dealt with as the case was for some time, the diagnosis has been scary. I think there is a lot for me personally to learn from reading this account of his experience.

Following are three short passages from the book:
`While I was doing something indisputably positive by quitting drinking, in the rest of my life, I was still pursuing the same fear-based agenda that had gotten locked into place in the days following my diagnosis.' (page 204).
`..Reading it today, what's perhaps most astonishing about my manifesto is the one thing it failed to mention. That I had Parkinson's Disease, and it wasn't ever going to go away.' (page 216)
`With everything that Woody Allen was going through that spring, there was nothing more terrifying to him that the prospect of incurable disease. And then suddenly it hit me. Hey, I have an incurable disease - and I'm laughing anyway. I must be doing okay.' (page 232)

Though it doesn't cut straight to the chase about the Parkinson's, as the book takes you through his journey from obscurity in Canada to Hollywood star, there is important context. I'd encourage anyone and everyone to have a read of Lucky Man, even if you don't suffer from degenerative or chronic conditions. There is a good lesson to be learned, believe me. And I'm not even finished reading it yet.
Michael's push to find a cure for Parkinson's is bold and courageous and he should be applauded, even in the light of his controversial push for stem cell research. (I don't have a clear position on this issue and those who know me would know why).