Magazine Monday: Playing the Result

The above picture is a shot of the Letter to the Editor page in a recent issue of  Good Housekeepingmagazine. A previous issue had included an interview with Michael J. Fox and the writer of this letter talks about being diagnosed with MS and adopting Fox's motto of "Don't play the result."

I'm a big fan of Fox and would recommend his memoirs (such as Always Looking Up: The Adventures of an Incurable Optimist) to anyone, but perhaps especially to people dealing with chronic illness. Anyway, I LOVE this idea of not playing the result. So you have MS and might one day be in scary place X, but that doesn't mean that you should plan to immediately take up residence there mentally and emotionally. Fox has Parkinson's, but he doesn't play that role in his life - he continues to play roles of husband, father, actor, advocate. I know I'm sometimes guilty of playing the result, so I'm glad Linda McEwen took the time to write this letter to GH that happened to jump out at me and make me reflect on those wise words. Don't play the result!

Incidentally, this same issue featured an interview with Meredith Vieira in which she talked some about her husband Richard's health, including the ways she thinks it has improved her children as people to have a dad with MS and other health problems. I'm also big fans of Meredith and Richard, and I'm pretty sure they don't play the result either. How about you?