RIP, Oliver Sacks

I have literally just started to read Oliver Sacks' s book called Vintage Sacks which was published by Vintage Books. Mind you, it is not an usual introduction to Oliver Sacks' s works. I guess normally people would start from Hallucinations, Awakenings or Uncle Tungsten, etc. These are the books I would like to collect now, including his latest memoir, On the Move.

Dr. Oliver Sacks passed away on August 30th in New York and the cause of it was cancer. Earlier this February, he wrote an article called My Periodic Table on New York Times, which delved into his early life and how strong it was connected to the periodic table. No words could ever justify how much warmth his words brought to us. One simply has to read it oneself to truly discover how amazingly passionate and humble this man was. The article, Sabbath, on New York Times was the last piece he wrote although he did still have many other works to be published. Sabbath is another amazing piece Dr. Sacks wrote to reflect his life and how he made peace with it as well as what it meant to lead a worthy life. If even one has never read any books of his or even has never heard of his name before, go read these two articles, one will fall in love with him in an instant.

I have only seen the movie, Awakenings, once when I was very little. I did not even start from the very beginning. Come to think about it, I clearly remembered what my dad told me about the story outline. The patient, starring Robert De Niro, had been asleep for years and years and one day he suddenly woke up! During his awakening, he managed to experience how it was like to be alive again. Everything was new and sensational. I remembered he danced with a lovely female while he struggled to stand firm but the female was patient and kept doing the lead anyway. All these years, I have never gone and tried to search for that film but only a few weeks ago, I began to be keen to find the movie again.

I went to Mexico City on a work trip this June for the third time since 2012. Well, in fact, the previous two times I went there were both for work trips, too. And so far, I have always been there in summer. It was a coincidence that I met a Mexican guy for the second time. We first met back in 2012 and we did not chat for long. I do not even remember what we actually talked about at that time. This year, he recognized me before I did. What are the chances and for me, it was amazing that he could ever remember my face at all. So inevitably, I added him on Facebook on the day we were set to fly home from Mexico City so that at least I have a way to keep in touch. He might not be the sort of person who shares daily lives on social media but he does share some really good articles about a lot of things, really.

After I added him on Facebook, I came to notice on my newsfeed that he shared Oliver Sacks' s article. I was very intrigued so I clicked on the link. Then I googled the name and before long, I realized he was the man behind the Awakenings story. The movie has somehow inscribed into my head for probably as long as I could remember and some of the sequences from the movie did have popped out of my mind a couple of times for no reason at all. These, for me, are all very nice little coincidences coming to be collective at probably the right time. I felt privileged to be able to read Dr. Oliver Sacks' s works now. I was extremely saddened to learn about his passing yesterday though he did mention his reaching the final stage of liver cancer earlier this year, too. Guess at the end of the day, you can never be prepared for one' s death whether you know the person or not.

I keep on reading some of his works online today and still felt heartbroken that we have lost one of the greatest human beings. The world is never the same. But what we could do is to remember all his goodness in him and it may bring out our best in us, too.

Here is a TED talk Oliver Sacks gave a while ago. Thought I should share.

Oliver Sacks: What hallucination reveals about our minds

<旅遊的滋味>布朗特姐妹的哈沃斯

投稿這篇文章至自由時報旅遊版，於2015年6月3日刊出，原投稿內文與刊登出來的內容有所刪修，自由時報刊出連結請點選：<旅遊的滋味>布朗特姐妹的哈沃斯

原投稿文如下：


2010年聖誕節前夕，與朋友來到西約克郡的哈沃斯(Haworth)度過難忘的兩天，從倫敦搭火車至里茲，轉至基斯利(Keighley)，再改搭公車抵達目的地。那年冬天大雪覆蓋了平時清楚可見的荒原，說是納尼亞也不為過。氣溫即使再低，還是有人在丘陵間晨跑。B&B老闆娘用心準備了全套英式早餐，在鎮上不見夏天的熱鬧景象，酒吧裡的人其實都面惡心善，廚師還因在路上被雪困住而遲到了一小時，飢腸轆轆的我們更珍惜美味的鹿派與約克夏布丁。

哈沃斯不是布朗特(Bronte)姐妹的出生地，卻是她們度過大半人生的地方，其「簡愛」與「咆哮山莊」等作品之知名度不在話下，作品裡呈現出的荒原景觀更符合貼近英國浪漫主義的想像，透過這般能夠令人憶起過往昔日的景色，提升故事所能帶來的情感衝擊。冬日的白雪與早晨的低溫明顯將英格蘭北部的陽光擊退了，卻絲毫不影響我們在山中健行之興致，或許是在那遇見體驗的所有人事物，而使我們如此熱愛在哈沃斯的每一時刻吧？！