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
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