Tawny Apa

But in Ashar’s eyes, he’ll always be 17 – young Marty McFly from the Back to the Future trilogy, who we know and love as Michael J. Fox.

As part of an iHomeschool Network celebration of some noted June birthdays, I wanted to share today a little more about Michael, and specifically some of what we’ve learned and talked about through his first series of big hits, Back to the Future!

Many of the adults among us think of Michael J. Fox best as Alex P. Keaton on Family Ties. The funniest thing is, I was never a big Family Ties fan, so, like Ashar, I most often think of him as time-traveler Marty McFly!

Anyway, he was born June 9, 1961, and holds dual Canadian-American citizenship.

Most of his acting work started in the early 1980s and continued until 2000, when he semi-retired after announcing that he has Parkinson’s disease, which he was diagnosed with in 1991; since then, he’s written three books and started a foundation to help fund and promote awareness of Parkinson’s research, and is about to make a comeback on TV with an NBC sitcom this fall.

What if you could travel through time? What if you could see your own past – and accidentally almost erase your own future? Then,what if you went farther into the future and saw something you didn’t want to see?

That’s Back to the Future, the time-travel series of three movies that I loved when I was younger and rediscovered this year while watching them with Sarah.

Roads? Where we’re going, we don’t need roads!

You’re my density!

Heavy! There’s that word again! Why is everything in the future so heavy? Is there a problem with the earth’s gravitational field?

Yes, these are things we say on a regular basis in our family.

If you’re wondering more about the movies (and the books, and the TV series, and all the other things that I didn’t even know existed until now), you could lose hours in the Futurepedia – the wiki project for Back to the Future that is almost frighteningly thorough.

I had to laugh at one thing I found while reading about the Back to the Future series. Describing his work in the films in a 2012 Parade magazine article, Michael J. Fox said “I truly thought I was terrible.” He was sure the films would never be shown, he thought he did so bad!

I guess we all do a better job than we give ourselves credit for, huh?

As someone who lives with chronic illness, I’ve spent most of my adult life appreciating Michael J. Fox’s honesty and openness about his own struggles.

This interview with Ellen DeGeneres is particularly great:

One thing that Michael’s caught some hard times for is that he doesn’t always “look” like someone with severe Parkinson’s during his television appearances.

In a 2002 interview on NPR’s Fresh Air, he said:

I admit that’s a hard issue for me, in large part because it’s one I’ve struggled with personally related to health issues.

I did like hearing that when Michael appeared before the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee in 1999 to talk about research funding, he purposely did not take his medication. I think that’s fair and relevant, and I think I support his decision to potentially “overmedicate” under high-pressure situations as well!

Now this is what it’s all about, for our family. We love to learn through books and movies, and we don’t really differentiate between “educational” movies and books and “noneducational” ones.

Some movies, though, really spark a lot of discussion even when they don’t purport to be traditionally educational, and the Back to the Future series is a great example of this. Some of the things it led us to talk about include:

If you’re interested, there are many more cool “June birthday” lessons from my fellow iHomeschool Network bloggers. Click the image below to check them out!

And thanks for stopping by to help me wish Michael J. Fox a happy birthday in thanks for all the smiles and laughs he’s brought our family!

Confidente

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