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The Man With The Golden Thumb

written by Nick Cernis on August 14th, 2008

8 years ago, I longed with all my heart to become a special effects artist.

I took a degree in Computer Animation and Special Effects and, though I enjoyed eating nothing but popcorn for three years, shooting James Bond parodies, and graduating with First-Class Honours, I never went on to blow things up for a living. But I’ll save that story for another time.

Today I’d like to tell someone else’s, and drop a different kind of bomb.

Meet Patrick

During my degree course I found the work of Patrick O’Brien. Patrick is a talented and off-the-wall filmmaker and animator. Back then, he worked under the name of Transfatty and made commercials for the likes of IBM, MTV and Microsoft.

These days Patrick is still one of my favourite filmmakers, but his work has changed in style and content. Why the shift in direction? I suspect for one reason above all:

Patrick now lives with a terminal illness.

This is his inspirational story. It will teach you more about putting things off than you’ll learn from me in a lifetime.

Patrick’s story

In 2004, Patrick O’Brien noticed a strange shaking in his legs. One year later at the age of 30, he was diagnosed with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), or Lou Gehrig’s disease.

ALS patients gradually lose voluntary movement throughout their bodies until only eye control remains. It’s a horrible disease that kills one American every 90 minutes. It’s also the same illness that Stephen Hawking lives with.

On learning of his oncoming paralysis, Patrick became anything but still:

He started The Patrick O’Brien Foundation
He raised funds for ALS research and built awareness of the condition
He drove a wheelchair across New Jersey
He protested naked outside the White House and posted the pictures (tastefully shot) on Rebel Without A Stem Cell.
He threw parties
He became a dad
He made a film about it all

His upcoming documentary is titled “Everything Will Be Okay”, and I’d like to share a clip with you today, firstly, because it’s brilliant and, secondly, because I’d be bonkers not to spread the word.

Everything Will Be Okay

Patrick’s film is based on a powerful idea: if you were given 2-5 years to live, what would you do? He’s currently inviting donations to help him complete it. If you’d like to give a little (or a lot), click the banner to the left. If you’re a blogger, please spread the word.

The promo clips had me teetering between laughter and — I’m not ashamed to admit it — floods of tears. The tears where a bit of a shock, to be honest. I hadn’t cried properly in years, and it made me think about what caused that reaction.

Before I tell you the answer, I’d like you to watch one of the happier clips. Don’t worry — it’s called “Party” and I promise it won’t make you cry. In fact, if it doesn’t have you smiling for 5 minutes straight, I recommend you see a doctor. Ask her to check for a pulse.

Watch Party

Visit this page, look for “Party” and click “Watch Promo”. You’ll need speakers to hear the awesome soundtrack (”I just want to celebrate” by Rare Earth). If you’re slacking off at work and can’t watch it right now, just read on and check out the clip at home, watch it in your lunch break, or find a job that lets you piss about more openly.

The clip is a simple celebration of friendship; a moving portrait of guests at a party edited by a master of his art. So here’s the bomb: Patrick edited the whole thing and cut it to music in nine nights using only his thumb.

The man with the golden thumb

When I read that Patrick had shot and edited the piece with one thumb, I was blown away. Combine the Party video with the others on the site (which show him adapting to his new way of life) and you have some powerful evidence of a talented artist who’ll stop at nothing to live his dream: the dream of creating a feature-length film.

“So why the tears, Nick?”

Partly because I’m a big softie, but mainly because there is something incredibly humbling in watching great people go through hell to live out their dreams. It’s a similar feeling to the one I get watching Olympians duck across the finish line in first place, drop to their knees, clench their fists, and scream the last dregs of air from their lungs in triumph as their eyes sparkle with tears; a celebration of being alive; 10 years of hard work recognised in 10 seconds of spine-tingling joy.

Witnessing great moments like these causes feelings so powerful that it once made me take up running. And martial arts. And the guitar. One day I’ll be good enough at these things to stir up the same brand of emotions in others. For now, I’m happy to borrow the brilliance of others for my examples.

What Patrick can teach us

I’m sometimes asked what piece of advice I’d give to those with a limited supply of time, attention, or marbles. You can read some of my answers elsewhere, most recently at the excellent PluginID blog.

While I’m always touched to be asked, nothing I say could carry the same weight as real life lessons. I could write a book on the things we can learn from Patrick O’Brien. Instead, I’ll share only one:

Putting Things Off is your greatest luxury.

A message to the thumb twiddlers

The world is full of amazing people like Patrick who don’t have time to put things off. For them, procrastination is a luxury. “Maybe one day” just won’t do. “I’ll do it next year” becomes a high-risk strategy. When faced with the ultimate deadline, action is the only option.

I’m all for taking time to find your passion; it’s what life’s all about. As Patrick’s story proves, it’s rarely too late to chase your dreams. But it’s never too early either. If you put off following your big goals because you’re banking on having time later, then you’re forgetting a simple truth:

You won’t be able to twiddle your thumbs forever.

After all, if a man can chase his dream by twiddling only one of them, what on Earth’s stopping you?

11 comments so far:

14 Aug 08
08:08

Glen Allsopp

Thanks for the link, and more importantly such an awesome story :), I wasn’t familiar with Patrick or his film. I’ll check out those ‘tasteful’ photos ;)

Cheers,
Glen

14 Aug 08
11:08

Monika Mundell

Hi Nick,

Thank you for making me aware of Patrick’s plight. I just published my post thanks to you. Consider yourself stumbled since every bit helps.

Thank you

14 Aug 08
11:08

Jayme

This is such a moving post. Lately, I’ve been taking baby steps to pursue my passion. Sometimes I take 5 steps forward and 2 steps back but I try to keep going. Thanks for sharing Patrick’s inspiring story, it’s a mighty strong push for me to just keep walking forward.

15 Aug 08
07:08

Sunili

Jeez, Nick, way to ruin all my plans. I’ve been sick all bloody week and all I want to do is just sleep through this weekend. But now you’ve inspired me to finish off this thing that I’ve been faffing about with for ages.

Curse you and those kittens! (But mostly, thank you.)

19 Aug 08
21:08

GirlPie

Great story, all the links are bookmarked to share with others, but I must tell you the reason I’d put off reading your post until today (an unusual 5 days since I saw it): the image and the first line. I know and only love one of the Bond films, and I work with SFX guys so I didn’t want to read about either — even on your blog. I’m so glad I remembered that I always enjoy your writing!

Thanks for intro’ing me to Patrick — I’m surprised he hasn’t turned up in more of the news, updates and blogs I see… I’ll have to share it via conventional methods anyway, you’ve done a nice thing here Nick.

27 Aug 08
00:08

Laura

This is Laura, Patrick’s girlfriend. Thanks so much for the shout-out to P. I would love to see more like this around the internet—Patrick is too limited physically now to really do the web networking stuff. Thanks, all!

27 Aug 08
21:08

Nick Cernis

Thanks to everyone for chiming in, spreading the word, and promoting this post and Patrick’s work. It means a great deal to me.

@Laura — it’s wonderful to see you here and my pleasure to be able to spread the word. It must be tough finding a voice in amongst the rabble! Feel free to email me if I can help with anything else at all.