Oliver Sacks Died Today

Dr. Oliver Sacks died today at age 82.

I've told you before that I've had little crushes on several men and Dave's OK with it.  Like many others, I have admired Oliver Sacks for decades.  What do we have in common?

Every act of perception, is to some degree an act of creation, and every act of memory is to some degree an act of imagination . - Oliver Sacks

He is a world famous neurologist and writer. - the premier authority on how our brains work.  He's an atheist, gay Jew.  And, as of today, he's dead.

In examining disease, we gain wisdom about anatomy and physiology and biology.  In examining the person with disease, we gain wisdom about life.  -  Oliver Sack

I am none of those things - but over the years I have tried to read almost everything he's written.  He let me know how complex my mind, encased in this brain of mine, really is.  He let me know we all have brain issues.  (He had his own serious brain abnormality in that he could not recognize faces.)

He reminded me how important music is in all of our lives and how it affects our emotions.

Music, uniquely among the arts, is both completely abstract and profoundly emotional.  It has no power to represent anything particular or external, but it has a unique power to express inner states of feelings.  Music can pierce the heart directly; it needs no mediation.  - Oliver Sacks Tales of Music and the Brain

His books were exciting and, surprisingly, easy to read.  When he wrote about patients he wrote about the whole person and that person's family, friends and surroundings.

Last February he told us he was terminally ill.  He went into great detail about his illness and how he felt about dying.

I cannot pretend I am without fear.  But my predominant feeling is one of gratitude.  I have loved and been loved; I have been given much and I have given something in return; I have read and traveled and thought and written.  I have had an intercourse with the world, the special intercourse of writers and readers. 

Above all, I have been a sentient being, a thinking animal, on this beautiful planet, and that in itself has been an enormous privilege and adventure.  - Oliver Sacks

Goodybye Dr. Sacks.  It has been a true privilege to share this planet with you.

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