One month ago, 81-year-old Oliver Sacks felt like his normal, healthy, mile-a-day-swimming self. But a few weeks ago, the author and NYU neurology professor was diagnosed with terminal cancer. In a heartbreaking op-ed in today's New York Times, Sacks waxes poetic on the beauty of life, even now, as death moves from a distant inevitability to an immediate reality. "I cannot pretend I am without fear," Sacks writes. "But my predominant feeling is one of gratitude ... I have had an intercourse with the world, the special intercourse of writers and readers."
A brief excerpt:
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.
I feel intensely alive, and I want and hope in the time that remains to deepen my friendships, to say farewell to those I love, to write more, to travel if I have the strength, to achieve new levels of understanding and insight.
I feel a sudden clear focus and perspective. There is no time for anything inessential. I must focus on myself, my work and my friends. I shall no longer look at "NewsHour" every night. I shall no longer pay any attention to politics or arguments about global warming.
I have been a sentient being, a thinking animal, on this beautiful planet, and that in itself has been an enormous privilege and adventure.
Read the whole thing here. It's worth your time.
