‘The Good Place’ Reminds Me of the Importance of a Moment

On Saturday, the last season of the Netflix series “The Good Place” began streaming. To me, it was the best ending of any TV show I have ever seen. My boyfriend and I cried.

I’ll try to avoid spoilers, because — and I can’t express this enough — everyone should watch it. I will say the show has an ongoing theme that is highlighted in the last few episodes. The theme is that the human experience is special because it ends. If you could have anything you wanted for an endless amount of time, it would lose its excitement. 

There is an argument to be made that having Huntington’s disease, or having a family member with it, makes every second more meaningful. Whenever I go home to visit my mother, I try to make the most of every moment I spend with her. That feeling is intensified because I live so far away, which further limits the amount of time we have together. Both my mother and I are gene-positive for Huntington’s. 

That’s not to say that when I am home we go out of our way to create memories, rather the mundane moments have more importance. For instance, while watching “Descendants“ on Disney+ would be a mundane event for most, for me it’s an everlasting memory.

“The Good Place” doesn’t imply that a shorter life is more meaningful, but rather that you can’t spend infinite “Bearimys” (a very long amount of time) without things losing their meaning. 

I’m not asking for an infinite time with my mom or on this planet. I don’t even think I could get my mother to agree to live infinitely (which is impressive, because she really doesn’t say no to me about anything). My desires are much simpler. I would rather that each mundane moment be just that — mundane.

I wish I didn’t think about each moment as a memory. While maybe endless time is not the best option, a full life definitely would be a better deal. 

The only thing that could give me that deal at this point — barring “The Good Place” becoming real — is a therapy to stop the progression of Huntington’s disease. I work in life science consulting, and I see amazing therapies emerging all the time. This gives me hope every day for a Huntington’s therapy. 

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