Oliver Sacks: A Life Well-lived

Hahnsoo1

"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, on his terminal cancer

Oliver Sacks died today on August 30, 2015. The famed neurologist wrote many books, including "Awakenings" and "The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat". He wrote with such humor, compassion, and prose, and he was well-loved by all of his colleagues. He had a gift for bringing the story out of the medical case study, for showing you the human inside every patient. Many of my friends who are doctors wanted to become him, when they grew up.

Whether it was the woman who suddenly found that she was full of life after taking L-Dopa, or the man who had symphonies playing in his head, or even talking about his own face-blindness, he showed us how peculiar the human brain could be and how mysterious it still is, and how important it was for our own sense of self and identity.

It was pretty surreal earlier this year to listen to him on RadioLab talking about his terminal cancer, and about the gratitude and high spirits he had about his life.

I will miss him, but I cannot deny that he has lived a long and fulfilling life, and the fruits of his life gave us all a little more brightness and wonder.

EDIT: Some links on RadioLab about his life and career and many interesting things:
* The Table of Elements
* Looking back on his career
* Tell-tale Hearts, featuring Oliver Sacks
* On his Face Blindness

EDIT 2: Hey, this is Oliver Sacks? Crazy!

Endaro

Even knowing well in advance of his illness, through his radio appearances and written articles, it didn't make the news today any less sad.

I largely knew of him from his Radiolab appearances, but he lived a very interesting and inspiring life. The "Looking back on his career" Radiolab clip posted above also serves very well as an obituary, in case anyone is looking for one.The NYT letter that the above quote is from is also worth posting. It felt like a remarkably honest point of view from someone very well aware of their impending death.

My personal favorite story of his is the one in which he attempts to order two pounds of kidneys at a grocery, but the butcher misunderstands him and gives him twenty two pounds of kidneys. Too embarrassed to make a fuss about it and return them, he keeps the twenty two pounds of kidneys and eats kidneys for every meal for days, until he's sick of them. As ridiculous as it was, I could really sympathize with that story and it made my own neuroses feel slightly less weird.

He will be missed.