Ugh.
I'm really sad. I've always loved reading Oliver Sacks. I think part of that is that he is a neurologist who, through his work, seemed to also see and care for the actual human beings behind the symptoms he was studying and treating. ...a lot of neurologists in my experience, particularly when they become hot sh*t, seem to lose that grip. He has also at times spoken out about various issues on mental illness- making things like hallucinations not so "big and scary" for the average layman, so people don't have to be frightened of those who experience them. At times he would speak about stigma that surrounds both mental illness and all kinds of neurological conditions- something I work on when I am able as well and I really appreciate his efforts to make some of the more interesting conditions in neurology accessible to everyone without dehumanizing the cases he describes. He's a great writer. I'm really sad about this, but what he has written here is almost calming for me- and I'm not the one who has cancer.
"Over the last few days, I have been able to see my life as from a great altitude, as a sort of landscape, and with a deepening sense of the connection of all its parts. This does not mean I am finished with life."
Oliver Sacks on Learning He Has Terminal Cancer
[accompanying illustration for the article]
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I don't know about other people, but when I wake up in the morning and put my shoes on, I think, "Jesus Christ, now what?"
-C. Bukowski