My view of life is colored by humor and looking at the best in

Hear the words of Michael J. Fox, the man whose courage shines brighter than the shadows he has faced: “My view of life is colored by humor and looking at the best in any situation.” These words, spoken not from comfort but from struggle, hold the weight of true wisdom. For they come from one who has seen the fragility of flesh and the endurance of spirit, and who has chosen, again and again, to answer pain with laughter and darkness with light. Fox, who has lived for decades with Parkinson’s disease, does not speak as one untouched by sorrow. He speaks as one who has learned to transform it. His view of life is not naïve optimism—it is hard-earned grace.

To say that one’s vision of life is colored by humor is to say that one has learned to see through tears without being blinded by them. Humor is not the denial of hardship, but its illumination. It reveals that even suffering cannot strip us of our humanity. For laughter, when born of truth, is the soul’s defiance against despair. It is the declaration that though the world may tremble, the spirit will not. When Michael J. Fox speaks of seeing the best in all things, he speaks not of a blind eye, but of a seeing heart—a heart that chooses gratitude over grief, and joy over bitterness.

The ancients, too, knew this secret. The philosopher Epictetus, a slave who became one of the great Stoic teachers, taught that happiness does not depend on circumstance, but on perception. “It is not things that disturb us,” he said, “but our judgments about them.” When life confined him, he found freedom in thought. When pain came, he transformed it into wisdom. Like Fox, he discovered that no external trial can enslave the inner self that has learned to smile. The body may falter, fortune may turn, but the mind that finds light in darkness remains unconquered.

Consider, too, the story of Nelson Mandela, who spent twenty-seven years imprisoned, yet emerged not with hatred but with peace. When asked how he endured, he said, “I never lose. I either win or learn.” This is the same spirit that lives in Fox’s words—a refusal to let bitterness take root. Humor, in such hands, becomes not mockery but medicine; not avoidance, but transformation. It teaches that the soul can laugh even when the body trembles, and that in laughter lies healing deeper than any cure.

The origin of this wisdom in Fox’s life is no mystery. He was once a symbol of vitality and youth, adored for his roles in Back to the Future and Family Ties. Then illness came quietly, as it so often does, to test the foundations of his joy. Many would have withdrawn, letting sorrow steal their laughter. But Fox chose differently. He faced the future not with despair but with humor—with the same wry grin that had made millions love him. “I don’t have time to be bitter,” he once said, “because it takes up too much time being happy.” In that statement lies the essence of his strength: the decision to live fully, no matter the circumstance.

This teaching reaches beyond illness or fame—it is a philosophy for all who walk through trial. When Fox says his view of life is “colored by humor,” he reminds us that perception shapes destiny. We may not choose our burdens, but we can choose how we carry them. The world will offer sorrow, but we can meet it with gentleness. The heart that seeks the best in all things learns to transform hardship into growth, conflict into wisdom, and endings into beginnings. Such a heart does not deny reality; it redeems it.

Let this be the lesson, passed down like an heirloom to all who suffer or despair: choose laughter. Choose to see not what is lost, but what remains. Seek the best not because life is kind, but because you are. When the storm comes, do not curse the clouds—look instead for the light that filters through. Make humor your companion, and it will carry you through grief as a lantern carries flame through darkness.

So remember the wisdom of Michael J. Fox: “My view of life is colored by humor and looking at the best in any situation.” To live this way is not to live in denial, but in defiance—defiance of hopelessness, of despair, of defeat. It is to believe, even in the midst of struggle, that life is still good, that joy is still possible, and that laughter, however fragile, is the sound of the soul enduring. Therefore, when the shadows lengthen and the road grows steep, do not surrender your smile. For humor, as Fox has shown, is not the absence of pain—it is the presence of hope.