Thinking about the button

“We have to know how to be present”: Alan Alda, in an episode of Clear+Vivid with Michael J. Fox, recorded in 2018, now updated and available from the usual services. When this conversation was recorded, Fox had been living with Parkinson’s for twenty-seven years; Alda, for three. Alda goes on to say,

“That idea of being in the present, which we practice is actors: we have to know how to be in the present. It’s really helpful in a situation like this. All I’m dealing with right now is getting the cuff of my shirt buttoned. I'm not dealing with what this can turn into, or what a sign it is that I’m not the way I used to be. I'm not thinking about the past or the future; I’m just thinking about the button right now.”

“Exactly,” says Fox.

[My transcription.]