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Gratitudine
I quattro scritti qui raccolti sono la lettera di congedo che Oliver Sacks ha voluto indirizzare ai suoi lettori, dapprima rendendoli partecipi delle proprie sensazioni di fronte alla soglia degli ottant'anni, e più tardi informandoli, con perfetta sobrietà, di essere affetto da un male incurabile. Ma non ci si inganni: sono pagine vibranti di contagiosa vitalità quelle che Sacks ci regala, dove più che mai si respirano freschezza, passione, urgenza espressiva. Come quando, riflettendo sulla vecchiaia, rivela di percepire «non una riduzione ma un ampliamento della vita mentale e della prospettiva»; o quando si ripromette, nel breve tempo che gli resta, di «vivere nel modo più ricco, più intenso e più produttivo possibile»; o quando racconta di aver visitato, fra una terapia e l'altra, il centro di ricerca sui lemuri della Duke University: «... mi piace pensare che, cinquanta milioni di anni fa, uno dei miei antenati fosse una piccola creatura arboricola non troppo dissimile dai lemuri odierni»; o quando, pochi giorni prima della morte, contemplando la sua vita dall'alto «quasi che fosse una sorta di paesaggio», ne rievoca i momenti essenziali: del tutto simile, in questo, a un filosofo da lui molto amato, David Hume, il quale, appreso di avere una malattia mortale, scriveva nella sua breve autobiografia: «È difficile essere più distaccati dalla vita di quanto lo sia io adesso».
57 pages, Kindle Edition
First published November 1, 2015
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About the author
Oliver Sacks
102 books9,731 followersOliver Wolf Sacks, CBE, was a British neurologist residing in the United States, who has written popular books about his patients, the most famous of which is Awakenings, which was adapted into a film of the same name starring Robin Williams and Robert De Niro.
Sacks was the youngest of four children born to a prosperous North London Jewish couple: Sam, a physician, and Elsie, a surgeon. When he was six years old, he and his brother were evacuated from London to escape The Blitz, retreating to a boarding school in the Midlands, where he remained until 1943. During his youth, he was a keen amateur chemist, as recalled in his memoir Uncle Tungsten. He also learned to share his parents' enthusiasm for medicine and entered The Queen's College, Oxford University in 1951, from which he received a Bachelor of Arts (BA) in physiology and biology in 1954. At the same institution, he went on to earn in 1958, a Master of Arts (MA) and an MB ChB in chemistry, thereby qualifying to practice medicine.
After converting his British qualifications to American recognition (i.e., an MD as opposed to MB ChB), Sacks moved to New York, where he has lived since 1965, and taken twice weekly therapy sessions since 1966.
Sacks began consulting at chronic care facility Beth Abraham Hospital (now Beth Abraham Health Service) in 1966. At Beth Abraham, Sacks worked with a group of survivors of the 1920s sleeping sickness, encephalitis lethargica, who had been unable to move on their own for decades. These patients and his treatment of them were the basis of Sacks' book Awakenings.
His work at Beth Abraham helped provide the foundation on which the Institute for Music and Neurologic Function (IMNF), where Sacks is currently an honorary medical advisor, is built. In 2000, IMNF honored Sacks, its founder, with its first Music Has Power Award. The IMNF again bestowed a Music Has Power Award on Sacks in 2006 to commemorate "his 40 years at Beth Abraham and honor his outstanding contributions in support of music therapy and the effect of music on the human brain and mind".
Sacks was formerly employed as a clinical professor of neurology at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine and at the New York University School of Medicine, serving the latter school for 42 years. On 1 July 2007, Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons appointed Sacks to a position as professor of clinical neurology and clinical psychiatry, at the same time opening to him a new position as "artist", which the university hoped will help interconnect disciplines such as medicine, law, and economics. Sacks was a consultant neurologist to the Little Sisters of the Poor, and maintained a practice in New York City.
Since 1996, Sacks was a member of The American Academy of Arts and Letters (Literature). In 1999, Sacks became a Fellow of the New York Academy of Sciences. Also in 1999, he became an Honorary Fellow at The Queen's College, Oxford. In 2002, he became Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (Class IV—Humanities and Arts, Section 4—Literature).[38] and he was awarded the 2001 Lewis Thomas Prize by Rockefeller University. Sacks was awarded honorary doctorates from the College of Staten Island (1991), Tufts University (1991), New York Medical College (1991), Georgetown University (1992), Medical College of Pennsylvania (1992), Bard College (1992), Queen's University (Ontario) (2001), Gallaudet University (2005), University of Oxford (2005), Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú (2006). He was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2008 Birthday Honours. Asteroid 84928 Oliversacks, discovered in 2003 and 2 miles (3.2 km) in diameter, has been named in his honor.
Sacks was the youngest of four children born to a prosperous North London Jewish couple: Sam, a physician, and Elsie, a surgeon. When he was six years old, he and his brother were evacuated from London to escape The Blitz, retreating to a boarding school in the Midlands, where he remained until 1943. During his youth, he was a keen amateur chemist, as recalled in his memoir Uncle Tungsten. He also learned to share his parents' enthusiasm for medicine and entered The Queen's College, Oxford University in 1951, from which he received a Bachelor of Arts (BA) in physiology and biology in 1954. At the same institution, he went on to earn in 1958, a Master of Arts (MA) and an MB ChB in chemistry, thereby qualifying to practice medicine.
After converting his British qualifications to American recognition (i.e., an MD as opposed to MB ChB), Sacks moved to New York, where he has lived since 1965, and taken twice weekly therapy sessions since 1966.
Sacks began consulting at chronic care facility Beth Abraham Hospital (now Beth Abraham Health Service) in 1966. At Beth Abraham, Sacks worked with a group of survivors of the 1920s sleeping sickness, encephalitis lethargica, who had been unable to move on their own for decades. These patients and his treatment of them were the basis of Sacks' book Awakenings.
His work at Beth Abraham helped provide the foundation on which the Institute for Music and Neurologic Function (IMNF), where Sacks is currently an honorary medical advisor, is built. In 2000, IMNF honored Sacks, its founder, with its first Music Has Power Award. The IMNF again bestowed a Music Has Power Award on Sacks in 2006 to commemorate "his 40 years at Beth Abraham and honor his outstanding contributions in support of music therapy and the effect of music on the human brain and mind".
Sacks was formerly employed as a clinical professor of neurology at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine and at the New York University School of Medicine, serving the latter school for 42 years. On 1 July 2007, Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons appointed Sacks to a position as professor of clinical neurology and clinical psychiatry, at the same time opening to him a new position as "artist", which the university hoped will help interconnect disciplines such as medicine, law, and economics. Sacks was a consultant neurologist to the Little Sisters of the Poor, and maintained a practice in New York City.
Since 1996, Sacks was a member of The American Academy of Arts and Letters (Literature). In 1999, Sacks became a Fellow of the New York Academy of Sciences. Also in 1999, he became an Honorary Fellow at The Queen's College, Oxford. In 2002, he became Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (Class IV—Humanities and Arts, Section 4—Literature).[38] and he was awarded the 2001 Lewis Thomas Prize by Rockefeller University. Sacks was awarded honorary doctorates from the College of Staten Island (1991), Tufts University (1991), New York Medical College (1991), Georgetown University (1992), Medical College of Pennsylvania (1992), Bard College (1992), Queen's University (Ontario) (2001), Gallaudet University (2005), University of Oxford (2005), Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú (2006). He was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2008 Birthday Honours. Asteroid 84928 Oliversacks, discovered in 2003 and 2 miles (3.2 km) in diameter, has been named in his honor.
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December 3, 2015
This is a very short book. I had read two of the essays before, this time I got the audio book and listened to them. Sometimes it is a different experience. Just four essays written by Oliver Sacks before he died. All the links are to the essays as they were originally published.
The first essay, Mercury or the Joy of Old Age is a brief meditation on what it will mean to him to be very old, 80.
The second essay, My Own Life on learning the cancer from his eye has metastised and is now terminal. It's quite moving.
The third essay, My Periodic Table relates his life, and the treatment for his cancer to the elements.
The fourth essay, though, the last one, is the one that stands out for me. In part because I come from a similar background, in part because my flat in London is quite literally around the corner from Sacks' family home, although by the time I arrived there, it was only a Jewish area in a very small way. It was now an eclectic mix of young professionals, Londoners, Jamaicans and Irish. Still there was a very good bagel shop...
It is also my favourite because of a quote I have loved for a very long time, it's by Chaim Potok, from his novel The Chosen. The quote is peculiarly apposite as Sacks' cancer started in his eye.
"Human beings do not live forever, Reuven. We live less than the time it takes to blink an eye, if we measure our lives against eternity. So it may be asked what value is there to a human life. There is so much pain in the world. What does it mean to have to suffer so much, if our lives are nothing more than the blink of an eye?
I learned a long time ago, Reuven, that a blink of an eye in itself is nothing; but the eye that blinks, that is something. A span of life is nothing; but the man who lives the span, he is something. He can fill that tiny span with meaning, so its quality is immeasurable though its quantity may be insignificant. A man must fill his life with meaning, meaning is not automatically given to life.
It is hard work to fill one's life with meaning- that, I do not think you understand yet. A life filled with meaning is worthy of rest. I want to be worthy of rest when I am no longer here."
The essay Sabbath is a perfect elucidation of that quote by a man who gave life meaning to many despairing people and after a long life well-lived, deserved his eternal rest.
Alev HaShalom, rest in peace, Oliver.
The first essay, Mercury or the Joy of Old Age is a brief meditation on what it will mean to him to be very old, 80.
The second essay, My Own Life on learning the cancer from his eye has metastised and is now terminal. It's quite moving.
The third essay, My Periodic Table relates his life, and the treatment for his cancer to the elements.
The fourth essay, though, the last one, is the one that stands out for me. In part because I come from a similar background, in part because my flat in London is quite literally around the corner from Sacks' family home, although by the time I arrived there, it was only a Jewish area in a very small way. It was now an eclectic mix of young professionals, Londoners, Jamaicans and Irish. Still there was a very good bagel shop...
It is also my favourite because of a quote I have loved for a very long time, it's by Chaim Potok, from his novel The Chosen. The quote is peculiarly apposite as Sacks' cancer started in his eye.
"Human beings do not live forever, Reuven. We live less than the time it takes to blink an eye, if we measure our lives against eternity. So it may be asked what value is there to a human life. There is so much pain in the world. What does it mean to have to suffer so much, if our lives are nothing more than the blink of an eye?
I learned a long time ago, Reuven, that a blink of an eye in itself is nothing; but the eye that blinks, that is something. A span of life is nothing; but the man who lives the span, he is something. He can fill that tiny span with meaning, so its quality is immeasurable though its quantity may be insignificant. A man must fill his life with meaning, meaning is not automatically given to life.
It is hard work to fill one's life with meaning- that, I do not think you understand yet. A life filled with meaning is worthy of rest. I want to be worthy of rest when I am no longer here."
The essay Sabbath is a perfect elucidation of that quote by a man who gave life meaning to many despairing people and after a long life well-lived, deserved his eternal rest.
Alev HaShalom, rest in peace, Oliver.
November 7, 2025
Oliver Sacks wrote a series of essays during his last two years. Gratitude contains four of these – exploring feelings about life, coming to terms with his imminent passing and the gratitude he felt.
Mercury
Sacks wrote this in the days before turning eighty. He touches on regrets and admits to thinking he was going to die much younger after a mountaineering fall. It was interesting to read about him developing a lived sense of history.
“I can imagine, feel in my bones, what a century is like, which I could not do when I was forty or sixty.”
My Own Life
He wrote this after learning he had six months to live. It was first published in The New York Times. The essay was inspired by one of his favourite philosophers, David Hume, who write a short autobiography in a single day upon learning he was terminally ill.
“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.”
Sacks expressed an overwhelming appreciation for a life-well lived. It puts things in perspective – especially reading how he stopped watching the news, paying attention to politics and arguments about global warming – acknowledging such things belong to the future, one that he won’t partake in. It made me realise how privileged we are to have such worries and concerns, to have a future for oneself at all.
My Periodic Table
This was a reflection on his lifelong passion for the periodic table of elements. He expertly combined this with reflections on his own mortality, talking about scientific advancements and breakthroughs he won’t be alive to see.
It was interesting to learn how he previously coped with loss by turning to numbers, elements etc. The most poignant highlight was perhaps a passage about seeing a night sky full of stars.
“It was this celestial splendor that suddenly made me realize how little time, how little life, I had left.”
Sabbath
Oliver Sacks devoted his last energies to writing. This piece was published two weeks before his death in August, 2015. He explored religion and sexuality, how the two collided during his life. I was pleased to learn he ultimately found peace within himself.
He talks about the seventh day of the week, where someone can feel their work is done and one may finally rest. It was a beautiful end to this short book.
Gratitude will no doubt prompt readers to reflect on their own lives – things they have done, things they want to do, and the people and places they love. We have much to be grateful for.
I look forward to rewatching Awakenings and reading more work from Oliver Sacks.
Mercury
Sacks wrote this in the days before turning eighty. He touches on regrets and admits to thinking he was going to die much younger after a mountaineering fall. It was interesting to read about him developing a lived sense of history.
“I can imagine, feel in my bones, what a century is like, which I could not do when I was forty or sixty.”
My Own Life
He wrote this after learning he had six months to live. It was first published in The New York Times. The essay was inspired by one of his favourite philosophers, David Hume, who write a short autobiography in a single day upon learning he was terminally ill.
“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.”
Sacks expressed an overwhelming appreciation for a life-well lived. It puts things in perspective – especially reading how he stopped watching the news, paying attention to politics and arguments about global warming – acknowledging such things belong to the future, one that he won’t partake in. It made me realise how privileged we are to have such worries and concerns, to have a future for oneself at all.
My Periodic Table
This was a reflection on his lifelong passion for the periodic table of elements. He expertly combined this with reflections on his own mortality, talking about scientific advancements and breakthroughs he won’t be alive to see.
It was interesting to learn how he previously coped with loss by turning to numbers, elements etc. The most poignant highlight was perhaps a passage about seeing a night sky full of stars.
“It was this celestial splendor that suddenly made me realize how little time, how little life, I had left.”
Sabbath
Oliver Sacks devoted his last energies to writing. This piece was published two weeks before his death in August, 2015. He explored religion and sexuality, how the two collided during his life. I was pleased to learn he ultimately found peace within himself.
He talks about the seventh day of the week, where someone can feel their work is done and one may finally rest. It was a beautiful end to this short book.
Gratitude will no doubt prompt readers to reflect on their own lives – things they have done, things they want to do, and the people and places they love. We have much to be grateful for.
I look forward to rewatching Awakenings and reading more work from Oliver Sacks.
August 1, 2025
O carte de înțelepciune, n-ar fi rău s-o citiți...
De obicei, nu ne preocupă cine știe ce nici viața, nici moartea. Amîndouă sînt cuvinte goale. Viața e ceva de la sine înțeles, nimeni nu pune întrebări cu privire la ea, trăim fiindcă trăim (iată o tautologie!), punct. Moartea se întîmplă întotdeauna doar celorlalți, pe noi ne va ocoli neîndoios încă o mie de ani. Cu acest rudiment de filosofie oarbă, nu știm să ne bucurăm de viață (nici nu vrem) și nici nu sîntem dispuși să acceptăm că nu vom trăi veșnic. Nu privim în jur, nu mirosim aroma unui trandafir, nu iubim, nu scrutăm noaptea lumina ipotetică a constelațiilor. Există pretutindeni o frumusețe pe care nu o merităm. Și pe care, de prea multe ori, o neglijăm și o disprețuim.
Cartea cuprinde patru articole redactate de Sacks în preajma sfîrșitului (între 2013-2015): „[Scriu] acum, cînd moartea nu mai e doar un concept abstact - ci o prezență foarte intimă și imposibil de ignorat...”. Într-un fel, maladia l-a luat pe nepregătite. Sacks crede că a fost mai bine așa. În decembrie 2014, a putut să-și termine în pace cartea de memorii On the Move: A Life.
Multă vreme am crezut că expresiile „Viața e frumoasă” și „Mă bucur că trăiesc” sînt propoziții lipsite de sens. Rudolf Carnap le-ar fi trecut în rîndul propozițiilor metafizice. Acum nu mai cred asta. Ieri dimineață am primit un mic avertisment. Nu știu dacă e bine că m-am născut, a fost un hazard, n-a depins de mine. Dar dacă tot sînt în viață (cît voi mai fi), bine-aș face dacă aș folosi cu oarece chibzuință mult-puținul care mi-a mai rămas de trăit. Oliver Sacks a avut dreptate:
„Acum, la aproape 80 de ani, împresurat de boală și trecut prin atîtea operații, nu însă și infirm, mă bucur că sînt în viață - «Sînt fericit că n-am murit!», mă surprind strigînd cîteodată, cînd e vremea frumoasă. Spre deosebire de Samuel Beckett, căruia un prieten îmi povestea că i-ar fi spus într-o dimineață superbă de primăvară, cînd se plimbau prin Paris: «Într-o zi ca asta nu poți să nu te bucuri că trăiești, nu-i așa?» La care Beckett i-a răspuns: «N-aș merge pînă-ntr-acolo!»”. Exclamația lui Samuel Beckett e amuzantă, cinică și atît.
De ce trebuie să fim recunoscători că ne-am născut? Sugestia lui Richard Dawkins nu mă convinge. Trebuie să fim bucuroși că trăim, spune savantul, fiindcă dintr-un set infinit de vieți foarte puțin posibile, în cazul nostru una dintre ele s-a împlinit. A fost un noroc. Alții nu l-au avut și nu-l vor avea. Vor rămîne în neființă. E prea abstract, e ca în teologia lui Leibniz, Dumnezeu alege o lume posibilă. Oliver Sacks e mult mai uman:
„Nu neg că mi-e teamă [de moarte]. Și totuși, predominant în mine e sentimentul de recunoștință. Am dăruit dragoste și am primit dragoste în dar; am fost binecuvîntat cu multe lucruri minunate...; m-am bucurat de cărți, de colindat prin lume, de idei și de scris. Am întreținut o legătură cu lumea... Mai presus de orice, am fost o ființă gînditoare, un animal cu rațiune, născut pe o planetă frumoasă, ceea ce în sine e un privilegiu enorm și o aventură unică”.
De obicei, nu ne preocupă cine știe ce nici viața, nici moartea. Amîndouă sînt cuvinte goale. Viața e ceva de la sine înțeles, nimeni nu pune întrebări cu privire la ea, trăim fiindcă trăim (iată o tautologie!), punct. Moartea se întîmplă întotdeauna doar celorlalți, pe noi ne va ocoli neîndoios încă o mie de ani. Cu acest rudiment de filosofie oarbă, nu știm să ne bucurăm de viață (nici nu vrem) și nici nu sîntem dispuși să acceptăm că nu vom trăi veșnic. Nu privim în jur, nu mirosim aroma unui trandafir, nu iubim, nu scrutăm noaptea lumina ipotetică a constelațiilor. Există pretutindeni o frumusețe pe care nu o merităm. Și pe care, de prea multe ori, o neglijăm și o disprețuim.
Cartea cuprinde patru articole redactate de Sacks în preajma sfîrșitului (între 2013-2015): „[Scriu] acum, cînd moartea nu mai e doar un concept abstact - ci o prezență foarte intimă și imposibil de ignorat...”. Într-un fel, maladia l-a luat pe nepregătite. Sacks crede că a fost mai bine așa. În decembrie 2014, a putut să-și termine în pace cartea de memorii On the Move: A Life.
Multă vreme am crezut că expresiile „Viața e frumoasă” și „Mă bucur că trăiesc” sînt propoziții lipsite de sens. Rudolf Carnap le-ar fi trecut în rîndul propozițiilor metafizice. Acum nu mai cred asta. Ieri dimineață am primit un mic avertisment. Nu știu dacă e bine că m-am născut, a fost un hazard, n-a depins de mine. Dar dacă tot sînt în viață (cît voi mai fi), bine-aș face dacă aș folosi cu oarece chibzuință mult-puținul care mi-a mai rămas de trăit. Oliver Sacks a avut dreptate:
„Acum, la aproape 80 de ani, împresurat de boală și trecut prin atîtea operații, nu însă și infirm, mă bucur că sînt în viață - «Sînt fericit că n-am murit!», mă surprind strigînd cîteodată, cînd e vremea frumoasă. Spre deosebire de Samuel Beckett, căruia un prieten îmi povestea că i-ar fi spus într-o dimineață superbă de primăvară, cînd se plimbau prin Paris: «Într-o zi ca asta nu poți să nu te bucuri că trăiești, nu-i așa?» La care Beckett i-a răspuns: «N-aș merge pînă-ntr-acolo!»”. Exclamația lui Samuel Beckett e amuzantă, cinică și atît.
De ce trebuie să fim recunoscători că ne-am născut? Sugestia lui Richard Dawkins nu mă convinge. Trebuie să fim bucuroși că trăim, spune savantul, fiindcă dintr-un set infinit de vieți foarte puțin posibile, în cazul nostru una dintre ele s-a împlinit. A fost un noroc. Alții nu l-au avut și nu-l vor avea. Vor rămîne în neființă. E prea abstract, e ca în teologia lui Leibniz, Dumnezeu alege o lume posibilă. Oliver Sacks e mult mai uman:
„Nu neg că mi-e teamă [de moarte]. Și totuși, predominant în mine e sentimentul de recunoștință. Am dăruit dragoste și am primit dragoste în dar; am fost binecuvîntat cu multe lucruri minunate...; m-am bucurat de cărți, de colindat prin lume, de idei și de scris. Am întreținut o legătură cu lumea... Mai presus de orice, am fost o ființă gînditoare, un animal cu rațiune, născut pe o planetă frumoasă, ceea ce în sine e un privilegiu enorm și o aventură unică”.
May 26, 2016
I listened to this audio yesterday while in the woods. (a gift to the world, by Oliver Sacks)
It felt so unflinchingly honest that it hurt.
Oliver Sacks was a remarkably accomplished man --His gifts were huge --and his heart even bigger!
Sad-tender-and so very beautiful!
It felt so unflinchingly honest that it hurt.
Oliver Sacks was a remarkably accomplished man --His gifts were huge --and his heart even bigger!
Sad-tender-and so very beautiful!
February 22, 2016
Short but profound reflections on life, aging and confronting sickness and the end of your life with dignity and grace.
In an essay called "Mercury", Sacks reflects:
"My father, who lived to 94, often said that the 80s had been one of the most enjoyable decades of his life. He felt, as I begin to feel, not a shrinking but an enlargement of mental life and perspective. One has had a long experience of life, not only one’s own life, but others’, too. One has seen triumphs and tragedies, booms and busts, revolutions and wars, great achievements and deep ambiguities, too. One has seen grand theories rise, only to be toppled by stubborn facts. One is more conscious of transience and, perhaps, of beauty. At 80, one can take a long view and have a vivid, lived sense of history not possible at an earlier age. I can imagine, feel in my bones, what a century is like, which I could not do when I was 40 or 60. I do not think of old age as an ever grimmer time that one must somehow endure and make the best of, but as a time of leisure and freedom, freed from the factitious urgencies of earlier days, free to explore whatever I wish, and to bind the thoughts and feelings of a lifetime together."
Oliver Sacks was a remarkable human being who chose to live an extraordinary life.
I feel gratitude today for Oliver Sacks and for the years I've enjoyed on this earth so far.
November 25, 2019
”Eighty! I can hardly believe it. I often feel that life is about to begin, only to realize it is almost over.”
This is the first of Oliver Sach’s books, writings, I have read, and I loved reading his thoughts, musings, feelings, and observations as he faced the realization that the end of his life was near. The things he hasn’t done, whether he meant to ever do them or not, are now almost unthinkable – foreign languages he never learned, traveling the world and experiencing other cultures… and in a bit of (for me) literary serendipity, he is grateful for ”…what Nathaniel Hawthorne called ‘an intercourse with the world.’”
This includes four essays: Mercury, My Own Life, My Periodic Table, and Sabbath.
Simply profound, this was lovely and a perfect read to inspire your own thoughts on the things you are thankful for in this life.
This is the first of Oliver Sach’s books, writings, I have read, and I loved reading his thoughts, musings, feelings, and observations as he faced the realization that the end of his life was near. The things he hasn’t done, whether he meant to ever do them or not, are now almost unthinkable – foreign languages he never learned, traveling the world and experiencing other cultures… and in a bit of (for me) literary serendipity, he is grateful for ”…what Nathaniel Hawthorne called ‘an intercourse with the world.’”
This includes four essays: Mercury, My Own Life, My Periodic Table, and Sabbath.
Simply profound, this was lovely and a perfect read to inspire your own thoughts on the things you are thankful for in this life.
March 18, 2019
Os profissionais da área da saúde sofrem de uma maldição: negam a própria vivência para se dedicarem a melhorar a vida dos outros. E não se contentam em cuidar deles – almejam sempre encontrar a cura para todas as maleitas que afectem os demais.
Sacks misturou a sua vida com a tentativa de desvendar os mistérios da mente dos seus doentes, aproveitando para desenvolver uma área tantas vezes esquecida – a medicina narrativa. Num paradoxo laboral (afinal, os médicos não podem estar doentes), Sacks é confrontado com a derradeira verdade que nos acompanha ao longo desta viagem terrena: a vida tem um prazo de validade. A percepção desta finitude, o aproximar da amiga da foice, permite apreciar melhor a beleza do que nos rodeia e aproveitar a vida de uma forma mais intensa.
Nesta pequena grande obra, Sacks presenteia os leitores com quatro simples ensaios, onde repassa alguns momentos que marcaram a sua existência e relembra algumas pessoas que deixaram uma marca no seu âmago. O objectivo último é o de alcançar uma paz assente na certeza do “dever cumprido”. Aproveitando a paixão do autor pela tabela periódica, percebe-se que a mítica frase “somos feitos de poeira estelar” concretiza-se na sua vida, sendo que a sua fusão não terminou no ferro mas cessou apenas no chumbo, numa explosão que atinge todos os que lerem estas letras.
O título concretiza-se, no final, porque “Gratidão” é o que sinto por ter lido este presente. por ter reencontrado um autor, que tenho como modelo de vida, por ter conhecido um novo rol de amigos… por isso e muito mais!
Sacks misturou a sua vida com a tentativa de desvendar os mistérios da mente dos seus doentes, aproveitando para desenvolver uma área tantas vezes esquecida – a medicina narrativa. Num paradoxo laboral (afinal, os médicos não podem estar doentes), Sacks é confrontado com a derradeira verdade que nos acompanha ao longo desta viagem terrena: a vida tem um prazo de validade. A percepção desta finitude, o aproximar da amiga da foice, permite apreciar melhor a beleza do que nos rodeia e aproveitar a vida de uma forma mais intensa.
Nesta pequena grande obra, Sacks presenteia os leitores com quatro simples ensaios, onde repassa alguns momentos que marcaram a sua existência e relembra algumas pessoas que deixaram uma marca no seu âmago. O objectivo último é o de alcançar uma paz assente na certeza do “dever cumprido”. Aproveitando a paixão do autor pela tabela periódica, percebe-se que a mítica frase “somos feitos de poeira estelar” concretiza-se na sua vida, sendo que a sua fusão não terminou no ferro mas cessou apenas no chumbo, numa explosão que atinge todos os que lerem estas letras.
O título concretiza-se, no final, porque “Gratidão” é o que sinto por ter lido este presente. por ter reencontrado um autor, que tenho como modelo de vida, por ter conhecido um novo rol de amigos… por isso e muito mais!
June 17, 2016
This is a set of four short, but beautiful and profound essays by Oliver Sacks. They are reflections on his life, after learning that he was terminally ill.
I have read several of his books on neurology, but in this short book I learned about Sacks himself, and his life. I never realized that he was an "elements guy". That is to say, his hobby was learning and collecting elements from the periodic table. And he had a lifelong love for the physical sciences, beyond his career in the biological sciences.
What is most impressive is Sacks' positive attitude, his gentle style, and his tolerance for people with beliefs unlike his own. I highly recommend this book for everyone.
I have read several of his books on neurology, but in this short book I learned about Sacks himself, and his life. I never realized that he was an "elements guy". That is to say, his hobby was learning and collecting elements from the periodic table. And he had a lifelong love for the physical sciences, beyond his career in the biological sciences.
What is most impressive is Sacks' positive attitude, his gentle style, and his tolerance for people with beliefs unlike his own. I highly recommend this book for everyone.
March 2, 2016
Four essays written prior to his death, a reflection on living and coming to terms with his death.
April 5, 2019
Every once in a while, I stumble on a life-giving book but this is my first by a man who was dying.
Oliver Sacks, an eminent neurologist, wrote his memoir in the last two years of his life when he found out that an ocular melanoma he contracted earlier had metastasized in his liver. In the epigraph, he wrote, ‘I am now face to face with dying, but I am not finished with living.’ His zest for living was the theme in a quartet of essays that comprised this 66-page memoir. It is a refrain that was expressed movingly in an overwhelming appreciation for a life well lived. It is one thing to have a dialogue with oneself on how to confront death with fortitude; it is another thing altogether to live it. Oliver walked the talk.
In the memoir are glimpses of Oliver’s early life in Cricklewood, a Jewish community in England, his prodigious learning, residency in neurology at UCLA, and his eventual life work with the socially disadvantaged at a chronic care hospital in the Bronx. We see him as a mere 10-year-old child beginning a lifelong love for the periodic table of the elements and the physical sciences; we see him again at 82 surrounding himself once more ‘with metals and minerals, little emblems of eternity.’
This is my favorite quote from this memoir: “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.” There are many of his thoughts I wish to quote but I shall refrain in the hope that you will read this memoir.
Oliver Sacks died on Aug 30, 2015, at the age of 82. He said “I have no belief in (or desire for) any post-mortem existence, other than in the memories of friends and the hope that some of my books may still ‘speak’ to people after my death.” He will be pleased to know that this hope is kept alive. Thank you, Dr. Sacks.
Oliver Sacks, an eminent neurologist, wrote his memoir in the last two years of his life when he found out that an ocular melanoma he contracted earlier had metastasized in his liver. In the epigraph, he wrote, ‘I am now face to face with dying, but I am not finished with living.’ His zest for living was the theme in a quartet of essays that comprised this 66-page memoir. It is a refrain that was expressed movingly in an overwhelming appreciation for a life well lived. It is one thing to have a dialogue with oneself on how to confront death with fortitude; it is another thing altogether to live it. Oliver walked the talk.
In the memoir are glimpses of Oliver’s early life in Cricklewood, a Jewish community in England, his prodigious learning, residency in neurology at UCLA, and his eventual life work with the socially disadvantaged at a chronic care hospital in the Bronx. We see him as a mere 10-year-old child beginning a lifelong love for the periodic table of the elements and the physical sciences; we see him again at 82 surrounding himself once more ‘with metals and minerals, little emblems of eternity.’
This is my favorite quote from this memoir: “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.” There are many of his thoughts I wish to quote but I shall refrain in the hope that you will read this memoir.
Oliver Sacks died on Aug 30, 2015, at the age of 82. He said “I have no belief in (or desire for) any post-mortem existence, other than in the memories of friends and the hope that some of my books may still ‘speak’ to people after my death.” He will be pleased to know that this hope is kept alive. Thank you, Dr. Sacks.
Read
November 15, 2025E hoje, enfraquecido , sem fôlego, com os meus músculos outrora firmes debilitados pelo cancro, dou por mim a pensar, cada vez mais, não no sobrenatural ou no espiritual, mas no que significa viver uma vida boa e digna de ser vivida, de modo a que nos sintamos em paz connosco.
Por ser um livro admirado por algumas das minhas amigas de Goodreads fui adiando a sua leitura com receio de ser a desmancha-prazeres do costume, mas, desta vez, concordo com todos os elogios feitos. “Gratidão” é sabedoria, aceitação, melancolia e lucidez condensadas em quatro ensaios.
Não tenho como saber se a serenidade perante a morte iminente que Sacks espelha nestes textos é verdadeira ou fabricada, se ele está a tentar convencer os outros da sua coragem à beira do fim inevitável ou se está a tentar mentalizar-se de que, não havendo nada a fazer, mais vale agradecer por 83 anos de “uma vida boa e útil”. A verdade é que é serenidade que me transmite, e o seu apreço pelos pormenores mais banais da vida tocou-me.
“Ainda bem que não estou morto!” – é uma exclamação que irrompe de mim quando está um tempo perfeito. (E contrasta com outra história, contada por um amigo meu, que, ao caminhar por Paris com Samuel Beckett numa perfeita manhã de primavera, disse a este: “Um dia assim não faz com que te sintas contente por estar vivo?", ao que Beckett respondeu: “Eu não iria tão longe.” Sinto gratidão por ter experienciado muitas coisas – algumas maravilhosas, algumas horríveis.
O mais surpreendente nesta obra é o ensaio “Mercúrio”, cujo assunto é também explorado mais à frente em “A Minha Tabela Periódica”, por me ter permitido ver com outros olhos, com uma certa poesia até, os elementos químicos em que a minha mente resistente às aulas de Química nunca viu nenhuma outra transcendência que a da utilização nas palavras cruzadas.
A noite passada sonhei com mercúrio – enormes glóbulos cintilantes de mercúrio que subiam e desciam. O mercúrio é o elemento número 80 e o meu sonho veio lembrar-me que na próxima terça-feira eu próprio terei 80 anos. Os elementos e os aniversários estiveram entretecidos para mim desde o tempo, nos meus jovens anos, em que tomei conhecimento dos números atómicos. Aos 11 anos, podia dizer assim: “Sou sódio [elemento 11] e hoje aos 79, sou ouro.”
Creio que nunca mais completarei um aniversário sem ver o elemento químico que serei durante esse ano.
Por ser um livro admirado por algumas das minhas amigas de Goodreads fui adiando a sua leitura com receio de ser a desmancha-prazeres do costume, mas, desta vez, concordo com todos os elogios feitos. “Gratidão” é sabedoria, aceitação, melancolia e lucidez condensadas em quatro ensaios.
Não tenho como saber se a serenidade perante a morte iminente que Sacks espelha nestes textos é verdadeira ou fabricada, se ele está a tentar convencer os outros da sua coragem à beira do fim inevitável ou se está a tentar mentalizar-se de que, não havendo nada a fazer, mais vale agradecer por 83 anos de “uma vida boa e útil”. A verdade é que é serenidade que me transmite, e o seu apreço pelos pormenores mais banais da vida tocou-me.
“Ainda bem que não estou morto!” – é uma exclamação que irrompe de mim quando está um tempo perfeito. (E contrasta com outra história, contada por um amigo meu, que, ao caminhar por Paris com Samuel Beckett numa perfeita manhã de primavera, disse a este: “Um dia assim não faz com que te sintas contente por estar vivo?", ao que Beckett respondeu: “Eu não iria tão longe.” Sinto gratidão por ter experienciado muitas coisas – algumas maravilhosas, algumas horríveis.
O mais surpreendente nesta obra é o ensaio “Mercúrio”, cujo assunto é também explorado mais à frente em “A Minha Tabela Periódica”, por me ter permitido ver com outros olhos, com uma certa poesia até, os elementos químicos em que a minha mente resistente às aulas de Química nunca viu nenhuma outra transcendência que a da utilização nas palavras cruzadas.
A noite passada sonhei com mercúrio – enormes glóbulos cintilantes de mercúrio que subiam e desciam. O mercúrio é o elemento número 80 e o meu sonho veio lembrar-me que na próxima terça-feira eu próprio terei 80 anos. Os elementos e os aniversários estiveram entretecidos para mim desde o tempo, nos meus jovens anos, em que tomei conhecimento dos números atómicos. Aos 11 anos, podia dizer assim: “Sou sódio [elemento 11] e hoje aos 79, sou ouro.”
Creio que nunca mais completarei um aniversário sem ver o elemento químico que serei durante esse ano.
December 24, 2017
5★
Even if you’ve never read anything by neurologist Oliver Sacks, I bet you’ve seen the famous movie based on his book Awakenings, with Robin Williams as the Sacks character and Robert de Niro as a patient “awakened” from a catatonic state. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0099077/
Neurology may have been his professional field, but the man was so much more--a naturalist and philosopher, loved by many. Sacks wrote this tiny “quartet of essays” in the last years of his life, the first, Mercury, just before he’s about to turn 80 and when he seems to have recovered from a melanoma in his eye – a rare type. He is enjoying life and can’t believe he’s arrived at such an advanced age while he still feels like “a beginner”.
Yet he enjoys it, too, being able to take the “long view and have a vivid, lived sense of history not possible at an earlier age. I can imagine, feel in my bones, what a century is like, which I could not do when I was forty or sixty.” He thinks 80 is a time to explore, free of earlier “urgencies”.
He does continue to explore, but not for long, as he soon gets the diagnosis that his melanoma has spread and his time is limited. He has a chance to appreciate the people in his life, enjoy the adulation of the public who love his work, and the opportunity to write a bit more and travel to Israel for a close cousin’s 100th birthday.
While in Israel, he finds himself “drenched with a wistfulness, something akin to nostalgia, wondering what if: What if A and B and C had been different? What sort of person might I have been? What sort of a life might I have lived?”
He had been born into a large, very religious Jewish family in England but at 18, when his mother was so horrified at his homosexuality, he "hated religion's capacity for bigotry and cruelty"
Shortly before his death, he writes “I find my thoughts, increasingly, not on the supernatural or spiritual but on what is meant by living a good and worthwhile life—achieving a sense of peace within oneself.”
There is no doubt that the world is glad that A and B and C were not different and that Oliver Sacks became the man he did, a neurologist and philosopher who opened so many minds—those of his patients and those of his readers and admirers.
Even if you’ve never read anything by neurologist Oliver Sacks, I bet you’ve seen the famous movie based on his book Awakenings, with Robin Williams as the Sacks character and Robert de Niro as a patient “awakened” from a catatonic state. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0099077/
Neurology may have been his professional field, but the man was so much more--a naturalist and philosopher, loved by many. Sacks wrote this tiny “quartet of essays” in the last years of his life, the first, Mercury, just before he’s about to turn 80 and when he seems to have recovered from a melanoma in his eye – a rare type. He is enjoying life and can’t believe he’s arrived at such an advanced age while he still feels like “a beginner”.
Yet he enjoys it, too, being able to take the “long view and have a vivid, lived sense of history not possible at an earlier age. I can imagine, feel in my bones, what a century is like, which I could not do when I was forty or sixty.” He thinks 80 is a time to explore, free of earlier “urgencies”.
He does continue to explore, but not for long, as he soon gets the diagnosis that his melanoma has spread and his time is limited. He has a chance to appreciate the people in his life, enjoy the adulation of the public who love his work, and the opportunity to write a bit more and travel to Israel for a close cousin’s 100th birthday.
While in Israel, he finds himself “drenched with a wistfulness, something akin to nostalgia, wondering what if: What if A and B and C had been different? What sort of person might I have been? What sort of a life might I have lived?”
He had been born into a large, very religious Jewish family in England but at 18, when his mother was so horrified at his homosexuality, he "hated religion's capacity for bigotry and cruelty"
Shortly before his death, he writes “I find my thoughts, increasingly, not on the supernatural or spiritual but on what is meant by living a good and worthwhile life—achieving a sense of peace within oneself.”
There is no doubt that the world is glad that A and B and C were not different and that Oliver Sacks became the man he did, a neurologist and philosopher who opened so many minds—those of his patients and those of his readers and admirers.
June 12, 2016
Oliver Sacks pens these four essays over the span of a few years at different times during his battle with an eye melanoma that metastasized. Short and poignant, these essays really hit home. I can only imagine the lasting legacy they've created for Dr. Sacks. This book is short at only 45 pages and it is interspersed with pictures. What a way to memorialize a person that has been a resounding voice in the written word.
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June 30, 2016It has been my lot to stand outside stores while family shops. It could be Venice or La Jolla or just back home. Doesn't matter. Leather coats are modeled; children's designer socks are awwwwwwwed at; I stand outside, watching the passing parade of life.
But on a recent trip to Seattle I was spared the awkward shuffling of stance by a daughter who finally felt some pity. Or maybe she just worried that I would wander off, being in my dotage years, and it would take too long to recover me. Oh, they still went shopping; but, I was told, there was a bookstore nearby. Let me know what you think, she said.
Well, there was indeed a bookstore, if you don't mind what you say. For not far from The Land of Nod was (drum roll, please): AmazonBooks.
I know I know I know I know. But in I went. It was ..... It was clean. Staff was wearing sensible shoes. Books were where they were supposed to be and in alphabetical order. There was even a Goodreads Section, but filled with popularity, not what MY Goodreads friends read. It was Barnes & Noble Lite. But I can spend an hour even in a bad bookstore.
So I perused. And there, neatly stacked, was 'Gratitude' by Oliver Sacks, which has received some very nice reviews. I picked it up. Just a little thing. I thumbed through the pages of big print and wide margins. If you subtracted the blank pages, the author pictures and whatever introduction and afterword there was, you had a mere 38 pages. Four posthumous essays. At $17 (plus the highest sales tax in the English-speaking world) that would amount to a dollar for two very sparse pages.
I looked around. Just a few well-scrubbed Seattle-ites in hiking shoes and backpacks looking rapturous in the self-help section. A plan formed in my decrepit mind. Although not a hater, nor a protester, I thought I would make my own sub silentio statement. I'd read the book right then and there.
And so I did. If a bit furtively.
Oliver Sacks wrote these bits when he learned he had terminal cancer. He wrote that he viewed the years of his life like the elements of the periodic table. He was Mercury when he learned of his illness and Lead when he died. He wished he could live to see (be) Bismuth, a cool name for an element, he thought. He wrote of being Jewish, and then not being Jewish enough. He wrote of being gay, how his father told him what was becoming obvious, and how his mother called him an abomination.
This was poignant and sweet, and slight. One wonders at the need, Sacks having published his memoirs already.
But Sacks was already gone when some publishing company or estate hurried this out. $17. It did not take me 17 minutes to read it.
Some may turn in disgust that I even entered the store. Yet I finished a book, a dying man's kind thoughts at sunset, while others shopped. Sacks was thankful at the end, for his friends and his journey. And I too was thankful, thankful that I didn't have to stand on a sidewalk, thankful that some conglomerate would not get my $17. To them, the Amazon gods, I express my GRATITUDE.
But on a recent trip to Seattle I was spared the awkward shuffling of stance by a daughter who finally felt some pity. Or maybe she just worried that I would wander off, being in my dotage years, and it would take too long to recover me. Oh, they still went shopping; but, I was told, there was a bookstore nearby. Let me know what you think, she said.
Well, there was indeed a bookstore, if you don't mind what you say. For not far from The Land of Nod was (drum roll, please): AmazonBooks.
I know I know I know I know. But in I went. It was ..... It was clean. Staff was wearing sensible shoes. Books were where they were supposed to be and in alphabetical order. There was even a Goodreads Section, but filled with popularity, not what MY Goodreads friends read. It was Barnes & Noble Lite. But I can spend an hour even in a bad bookstore.
So I perused. And there, neatly stacked, was 'Gratitude' by Oliver Sacks, which has received some very nice reviews. I picked it up. Just a little thing. I thumbed through the pages of big print and wide margins. If you subtracted the blank pages, the author pictures and whatever introduction and afterword there was, you had a mere 38 pages. Four posthumous essays. At $17 (plus the highest sales tax in the English-speaking world) that would amount to a dollar for two very sparse pages.
I looked around. Just a few well-scrubbed Seattle-ites in hiking shoes and backpacks looking rapturous in the self-help section. A plan formed in my decrepit mind. Although not a hater, nor a protester, I thought I would make my own sub silentio statement. I'd read the book right then and there.
And so I did. If a bit furtively.
Oliver Sacks wrote these bits when he learned he had terminal cancer. He wrote that he viewed the years of his life like the elements of the periodic table. He was Mercury when he learned of his illness and Lead when he died. He wished he could live to see (be) Bismuth, a cool name for an element, he thought. He wrote of being Jewish, and then not being Jewish enough. He wrote of being gay, how his father told him what was becoming obvious, and how his mother called him an abomination.
This was poignant and sweet, and slight. One wonders at the need, Sacks having published his memoirs already.
But Sacks was already gone when some publishing company or estate hurried this out. $17. It did not take me 17 minutes to read it.
Some may turn in disgust that I even entered the store. Yet I finished a book, a dying man's kind thoughts at sunset, while others shopped. Sacks was thankful at the end, for his friends and his journey. And I too was thankful, thankful that I didn't have to stand on a sidewalk, thankful that some conglomerate would not get my $17. To them, the Amazon gods, I express my GRATITUDE.
May 5, 2016
A very moving audio. It made me want to hear more...
September 2, 2016
I first read the work of neurologist Oliver Sacks when I was in graduate school, and was researching the use of narrative, of storytelling, as a form of inquiry in a range of disciplines. Stories in neurology, the ultimate mystifying brain science? But it made sense to me. There are scientific research and facts, but the way to fully understand these facts is in the context of actual human lives, in anecdote, and biography, and experience. Thus I read The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat that features a range of fascinating neurological oddities as a way of illustrating all we do and do not yet know about the human brain. Sacks’s early work with men who had had sleeping sickness—giving them L-Dopa to help them “awaken”--was made into a movie with Robin Williams and Robert DeNiro. It would be an important, hopeful book a couple decades later for me as we tried (and largely failed, so far!) to retrieve speech in my severely autistic son.
So I read Sacks for how to use storytelling to convey complexity in research initially, and then, over time, to help me begin to understand the tragedy of what was happening to my son’s brain. And in that process I read An Anthropologist on Mars, which featured Temple Grandin, the high-functioning autistic, and in order to understand yet another son who is having some psychotic episodes, I more recently read Hallucinations. Sacks made the mystifying world of neurology accessible and endlessly fascinating. He gave me permission to tell and a model for telling my own stories about my sons.
Sacks had his own neurological disability, too, proscopagnosia, or "face blindness", which prevented him from recognizing even his own reflection, and contributed to his shyness.
Gratitude is a collection of four short essays Sacks wrote at the end of his life at 82. “Mercury” was written just before his 80th birthday, which concludes, “I am looking forward to being eighty” in typically positive fashion. Until almost the end, Sacks swam a mile every day. He was working every day to finish several books, including his memoirs. “My Own Life” was written just after he was told, at 81, he had multiple metastases in his liver, stemming from an ocular melanoma treated nine years before. In it, he comes to write,
"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 travelled and thought and written. 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 an adventure."
“My Periodic Table” was written at 82, months before the end. Though he still swam every day, he was in decline from the cancer but reflected on his love of science as a source of passion and comfort from loss. He talks about the numbered elements of the periodic table as corresponding with the years of one’s life.
“Sabbath” features Sacks’s sweet last words (though there are drafts of several books, as well) going back to his British and Jewish roots, come full circle in his life.
Sacks’s Gratitude makes me grateful. It’s a lovingly produced little book with photographs by partner/lover Bill Hayes. That Sacks kept his homosexuality a secret for much of his life is a sad testament to an age and a time past. RIP, Oliver, whom I knew well through reading his stories.
So I read Sacks for how to use storytelling to convey complexity in research initially, and then, over time, to help me begin to understand the tragedy of what was happening to my son’s brain. And in that process I read An Anthropologist on Mars, which featured Temple Grandin, the high-functioning autistic, and in order to understand yet another son who is having some psychotic episodes, I more recently read Hallucinations. Sacks made the mystifying world of neurology accessible and endlessly fascinating. He gave me permission to tell and a model for telling my own stories about my sons.
Sacks had his own neurological disability, too, proscopagnosia, or "face blindness", which prevented him from recognizing even his own reflection, and contributed to his shyness.
Gratitude is a collection of four short essays Sacks wrote at the end of his life at 82. “Mercury” was written just before his 80th birthday, which concludes, “I am looking forward to being eighty” in typically positive fashion. Until almost the end, Sacks swam a mile every day. He was working every day to finish several books, including his memoirs. “My Own Life” was written just after he was told, at 81, he had multiple metastases in his liver, stemming from an ocular melanoma treated nine years before. In it, he comes to write,
"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 travelled and thought and written. 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 an adventure."
“My Periodic Table” was written at 82, months before the end. Though he still swam every day, he was in decline from the cancer but reflected on his love of science as a source of passion and comfort from loss. He talks about the numbered elements of the periodic table as corresponding with the years of one’s life.
“Sabbath” features Sacks’s sweet last words (though there are drafts of several books, as well) going back to his British and Jewish roots, come full circle in his life.
Sacks’s Gratitude makes me grateful. It’s a lovingly produced little book with photographs by partner/lover Bill Hayes. That Sacks kept his homosexuality a secret for much of his life is a sad testament to an age and a time past. RIP, Oliver, whom I knew well through reading his stories.
February 11, 2019
Que maravilhosa e inspiradora leitura que este pequeno (grande!) livro me proporcionou!
O livro reúne quatro pequenos ensaios, os últimos escritos pelo autor (que infelizmente faleceu em 2015) e que haviam sido publicados no New York Times.
No primeiro, o autor fala-nos um pouco sobre a sua vida, sobre como se sente aos 80 anos, nos seus planos de vida, de trabalho, como se sente cheio de energia e vontade de trabalhar e como ainda tem tanto por fazer... Mas a "sorte" traíu esses seus planos de viver tanto quanto o seu pai (que faleceu aos 94 anos) e dois anos após ter escrito este primeiro ensaio, Oliver Sacks foi diagnosticado com uma forma rara de cancro, incurável.
Nos três ensaios que se seguem, o autor escreve já ante a perspectiva da sua morte, mas a sua energia e vontade de viver não se alteram perante esta fatalidade. "Estou frente a frente com a morte, mas não acabei a vida" é a frase introdutória deste livro... E é isso que o autor nos deixa, a sua força, a sua alegria de ter vivido uma vida plena, uma vida realizada, e o seu agradecimento por o ter podido fazer.
Gratidão...por tudo o que viveu, por tudo o que conseguiu alcançar, pelo seu trabalho, pelas pessoas que conheceu. Ele agradece, sem desespero ou desalento, com a coragem de quem vê e enfrenta o final da sua vida com um sentimento de realização, de plenitude.
A escrita é simples e bela. A mensagem é uma poderosa e inspiradora lição de vida. Ele abre-nos as portas aos seus pensamentos mais íntimos, às suas recordações do passado, à sua visão do futuro, e sinto um autêntico privilégio por me ter sido dado a conhecer este lado de Sacks, o do ser humano maravilhoso que foi.
Quero sem dúvida continuar a descobrir a obra deste autor, que tanto marcou a literatura de não ficção, a ciência e a própria humanidade. Maravilhoso. Não posso aconselhar mais. :)
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O livro reúne quatro pequenos ensaios, os últimos escritos pelo autor (que infelizmente faleceu em 2015) e que haviam sido publicados no New York Times.
No primeiro, o autor fala-nos um pouco sobre a sua vida, sobre como se sente aos 80 anos, nos seus planos de vida, de trabalho, como se sente cheio de energia e vontade de trabalhar e como ainda tem tanto por fazer... Mas a "sorte" traíu esses seus planos de viver tanto quanto o seu pai (que faleceu aos 94 anos) e dois anos após ter escrito este primeiro ensaio, Oliver Sacks foi diagnosticado com uma forma rara de cancro, incurável.
Nos três ensaios que se seguem, o autor escreve já ante a perspectiva da sua morte, mas a sua energia e vontade de viver não se alteram perante esta fatalidade. "Estou frente a frente com a morte, mas não acabei a vida" é a frase introdutória deste livro... E é isso que o autor nos deixa, a sua força, a sua alegria de ter vivido uma vida plena, uma vida realizada, e o seu agradecimento por o ter podido fazer.
Gratidão...por tudo o que viveu, por tudo o que conseguiu alcançar, pelo seu trabalho, pelas pessoas que conheceu. Ele agradece, sem desespero ou desalento, com a coragem de quem vê e enfrenta o final da sua vida com um sentimento de realização, de plenitude.
A escrita é simples e bela. A mensagem é uma poderosa e inspiradora lição de vida. Ele abre-nos as portas aos seus pensamentos mais íntimos, às suas recordações do passado, à sua visão do futuro, e sinto um autêntico privilégio por me ter sido dado a conhecer este lado de Sacks, o do ser humano maravilhoso que foi.
Quero sem dúvida continuar a descobrir a obra deste autor, que tanto marcou a literatura de não ficção, a ciência e a própria humanidade. Maravilhoso. Não posso aconselhar mais. :)
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June 19, 2016
David read this recently and gave it a great big thumbs up, and it inspired me to pick it up also. It's a very small book and came cheap as an ebook, and I finished it easily one night before bed. It consists of four essays that Oliver wrote before his death. From just before his terminal diagnosis to a couple of months before his death.
Oliver writes logically and emotionally about a life well-lived. He has a certain profound wisdom that comes from a life with many experiences. And there is no bullshit here. There is no agenda to his writing. He is thankful for the life he has led.
And we're thankful too.
This being only the third book of his I have read, I conclude that I need to read a lot more Oliver Sacks.
Oliver writes logically and emotionally about a life well-lived. He has a certain profound wisdom that comes from a life with many experiences. And there is no bullshit here. There is no agenda to his writing. He is thankful for the life he has led.
And we're thankful too.
This being only the third book of his I have read, I conclude that I need to read a lot more Oliver Sacks.
July 9, 2018
Não é bem um livro, é antes um pequeno conjunto de 4 artigos de jornal, os últimos 4 artigos escritos por Sacks, todos para o New York Times - “The Joy of Old Age” (6 jul. 2013), “My Own Life” (19 fev. 2015), “My Periodic Table” (24 jul. 2015) e “Sabbath” (14 ago. 2015) - o que não vai além das 5 mil palavras, 20 páginas.
Sacks é um dos psiquiatras e neurologistas mais famosos do século passado, principalmente pelos vários livros publicados, de entre os quais o mais famoso é sem dúvida "O Homem que Confundiu a Mulher com um Chapéu" (1985) com as suas histórias mirabolantes, seguido de "Despertares" (1973) por ter sido passado a cinema num filme homónimo com a dupla Robin Williams e Robert De Niro. Pelo meu lado sugiro fortemente o seu livro de 2007 "Musicophilia", mais pela discussão em redor da consciência do que da música. E talvez por isto mesmo o livro que quero ainda ler dele é o recentemente editado pela Rd'A "O Rio da Consciência" (2017).
Quanto a este Gratidão, sendo muito curto dá-nos apenas um lampejo sobre Sacks, e sobre o seu sentir após ter sabido que tinha poucos meses de vida. Queria dizer que é uma lufada de otimismo, que é aquilo de que Sacks fala, e que reflete bem o que ele sempre foi, mas o que se sente no final da sua leitura é uma pancada enorme de melancolia. Por isso leia-se sabendo o que se vai ler.
Sacks é um dos psiquiatras e neurologistas mais famosos do século passado, principalmente pelos vários livros publicados, de entre os quais o mais famoso é sem dúvida "O Homem que Confundiu a Mulher com um Chapéu" (1985) com as suas histórias mirabolantes, seguido de "Despertares" (1973) por ter sido passado a cinema num filme homónimo com a dupla Robin Williams e Robert De Niro. Pelo meu lado sugiro fortemente o seu livro de 2007 "Musicophilia", mais pela discussão em redor da consciência do que da música. E talvez por isto mesmo o livro que quero ainda ler dele é o recentemente editado pela Rd'A "O Rio da Consciência" (2017).
Quanto a este Gratidão, sendo muito curto dá-nos apenas um lampejo sobre Sacks, e sobre o seu sentir após ter sabido que tinha poucos meses de vida. Queria dizer que é uma lufada de otimismo, que é aquilo de que Sacks fala, e que reflete bem o que ele sempre foi, mas o que se sente no final da sua leitura é uma pancada enorme de melancolia. Por isso leia-se sabendo o que se vai ler.
December 18, 2015
A short collection of essays, but one that is beautifully written, and perfectly put together. I really appreciated his thoughts on aging, and on morality. It was heavy, but it didn't feel dark or oppressive either. I liked the glimpse it gave me of the author, his thought process, and his understanding of the world. I haven't read anything by him, but he is one of my sister's favorite authors, and after this I have a deep desire to read more.
It also inspired me to look up my element year, Krypton.
It also inspired me to look up my element year, Krypton.
November 28, 2022
"Há alguns anos, no campo, longe das luzes da cidade, vi um céu inteiro "polvilhado de estrelas" (como diz Milton) - pensei que um céu assim só pode ser visto em planaltos secos e muito altos como o Deserto de Atacama, no Chile (onde se encontram instalados alguns dos telescópios mais potentes do mundo). Foi esse esplendor celestial que me fez compreender de súbito como era pouco o tempo, como era pouca a vida, que me restava. O meu sentimento da beleza do firmamento e da eternidade fundia-se inseparavelmente em mim com um sentimento de transitoriedade - e de morte."
Página 32
Página 32
February 2, 2025
۱. اینکه یه نفر بتونه توی سختی و بیماری همچنان خوشبینی خودشو حفظ کنه و حتی از اون ها تشکر کنه، بینشی هست که به این راحتی ها بدست نمیاد. 👧🏻
۲. بین سلامتِ روان و سرطان یه رابطه ی خطیِ مستقیم وجود داره. 🥴
۳. بعضی خاطراتش شدیداً تلخ بودن. 😿
Gratitude by Oliver Sacks is a deeply moving and thought-provoking collection of essays that captures the renowned neurologist’s reflections on life, aging, and the human condition in the final months before his death. Written in the last year of his life, the book is a powerful meditation on mortality, the things that truly matter, and the importance of gratitude in the face of terminal illness.
In this short but poignant work, Sacks shares his personal thoughts with characteristic warmth and intelligence, offering readers a window into his emotional journey as he grappled with his own diagnosis. The essays are thoughtful, reflective, and profoundly human, as Sacks expresses his gratitude for the life he lived, the people he loved, and the work he did as a scientist and writer. His voice is calm and compassionate, making the experience of reading Gratitude deeply personal and almost intimate.
What makes Gratitude so impactful is not only Sacks’ vulnerability but also the clarity with which he discusses universal themes like love, legacy, and the importance of embracing life’s fleeting nature. He encourages readers to reflect on their own lives, to appreciate the small joys, and to confront the inevitable with grace and acceptance.
At just over a hundred pages, the book is brief but powerful, leaving a lasting impression long after it is finished. Sacks’ insights are not just for those facing illness or loss, but for anyone looking to live a more meaningful, appreciative life.
Overall, Gratitude is a beautiful and heartfelt book, offering a profound meditation on life, death, and everything in between. It’s a must-read for anyone seeking a reminder of what truly matters in life, and it serves as a fitting final reflection from one of the most compassionate and insightful thinkers of our time.
۲. بین سلامتِ روان و سرطان یه رابطه ی خطیِ مستقیم وجود داره. 🥴
۳. بعضی خاطراتش شدیداً تلخ بودن. 😿
Gratitude by Oliver Sacks is a deeply moving and thought-provoking collection of essays that captures the renowned neurologist’s reflections on life, aging, and the human condition in the final months before his death. Written in the last year of his life, the book is a powerful meditation on mortality, the things that truly matter, and the importance of gratitude in the face of terminal illness.
In this short but poignant work, Sacks shares his personal thoughts with characteristic warmth and intelligence, offering readers a window into his emotional journey as he grappled with his own diagnosis. The essays are thoughtful, reflective, and profoundly human, as Sacks expresses his gratitude for the life he lived, the people he loved, and the work he did as a scientist and writer. His voice is calm and compassionate, making the experience of reading Gratitude deeply personal and almost intimate.
What makes Gratitude so impactful is not only Sacks’ vulnerability but also the clarity with which he discusses universal themes like love, legacy, and the importance of embracing life’s fleeting nature. He encourages readers to reflect on their own lives, to appreciate the small joys, and to confront the inevitable with grace and acceptance.
At just over a hundred pages, the book is brief but powerful, leaving a lasting impression long after it is finished. Sacks’ insights are not just for those facing illness or loss, but for anyone looking to live a more meaningful, appreciative life.
Overall, Gratitude is a beautiful and heartfelt book, offering a profound meditation on life, death, and everything in between. It’s a must-read for anyone seeking a reminder of what truly matters in life, and it serves as a fitting final reflection from one of the most compassionate and insightful thinkers of our time.
October 17, 2020
Corto pero PRECIOSO. Una pena que se leyera en un suspiro. Una pena también que este señor, al ver que ya luego pasaba a mejor vida, dice cómo no cree que vaya eso a suceder y cómo tampoco lo necesita. Eso me hizo tener sentimientos en conflicto porque ¿así es como uno se siente cuando llega al momento? ¿Como cuando uno se va a dormir y ya no importa nada? ¿Eso es una promesa de la nada o simplemente del fin de este plano? Nunca lo sabremos (hasta que sepamos).
De todos modos, me encantó. La sinceridad de este señor, que pese a estar en momentos tan importantes siguió escribiendo con una sencillez y tan limpias. Sin decir de más ni de menos.
Cita que destaqué:
"
Mi padre, que vivió hasta los noventa y cuatro, solía decir que la década de los ochenta a los noventa había sido la que más había disfrutado de su vida. Para él, y ahora empiezo a compartir su opinión, esos años no eran tanto una mengua como una ampliación de su vida mental y su perspectiva. A esa edad posees una larga experiencia vital, no sólo de tu propia vida, sino también de la de los demás. Has visto triunfos y tragedias, expansiones y recesiones económicas, guerras y revoluciones, grandes logros y también profundas ambigüedades. Has presenciado el auge de las grandes teorías que al final se han visto derrotadas por la terquedad de los hechos."
De todos modos, me encantó. La sinceridad de este señor, que pese a estar en momentos tan importantes siguió escribiendo con una sencillez y tan limpias. Sin decir de más ni de menos.
Cita que destaqué:
"
Mi padre, que vivió hasta los noventa y cuatro, solía decir que la década de los ochenta a los noventa había sido la que más había disfrutado de su vida. Para él, y ahora empiezo a compartir su opinión, esos años no eran tanto una mengua como una ampliación de su vida mental y su perspectiva. A esa edad posees una larga experiencia vital, no sólo de tu propia vida, sino también de la de los demás. Has visto triunfos y tragedias, expansiones y recesiones económicas, guerras y revoluciones, grandes logros y también profundas ambigüedades. Has presenciado el auge de las grandes teorías que al final se han visto derrotadas por la terquedad de los hechos."
May 4, 2019
4 ensaios de amor e gratidão à vida. Escritos com muita serenidade e que me deixaram com um sorriso na cara!
Obrigada, Ritinha, por mo teres emprestado!
Obrigada, Ritinha, por mo teres emprestado!
November 21, 2017
This is a short collection of 4 essays, one written before his terminal diagnosis, and 3 written after. Not surprisingly, given the title, his prevailing attitude was one of gratitude. This quote sums it up:
"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."
Dr. Sacks doesn't focus on the particulars of his illness or his ordeal, but instead on the peace and gratitude he had and what it means to live a meaningful life. Beautifully said and elegantly written, what a wonderful gift he has left behind. Instead of being unbearably sad, the prevailing tone of the book was uplifting.
"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."
Dr. Sacks doesn't focus on the particulars of his illness or his ordeal, but instead on the peace and gratitude he had and what it means to live a meaningful life. Beautifully said and elegantly written, what a wonderful gift he has left behind. Instead of being unbearably sad, the prevailing tone of the book was uplifting.
February 4, 2017
Um pequeno grande livro...
P. 28- "As pessoas, quando morrem, não podem ser substituídas. Deixam buracos que não podem ser colmatados, porque é destino de cada ser humano - seu destino genético e neural - ser um indivíduo único, descobrir o seu próprio caminho, viver a sua própria vida, morrer a sua própria morte.
Não posso fingir que me sinto sem medo. Mas o meu sentimento predominante é de gratidão. Amei e fui amado; recebi muito e dei alguma coisa em contrapartida; li e viajei e pensei e escrevi. Tive uma união com o mundo, essa união especial com o mundo que é a de quem escreve e a de quem lê.
Acima de tudo, fui um ser senciente, um animal pensante, neste belo planeta, e isso foi, por si só, um enorme privilégio e aventura."
P. 28- "As pessoas, quando morrem, não podem ser substituídas. Deixam buracos que não podem ser colmatados, porque é destino de cada ser humano - seu destino genético e neural - ser um indivíduo único, descobrir o seu próprio caminho, viver a sua própria vida, morrer a sua própria morte.
Não posso fingir que me sinto sem medo. Mas o meu sentimento predominante é de gratidão. Amei e fui amado; recebi muito e dei alguma coisa em contrapartida; li e viajei e pensei e escrevi. Tive uma união com o mundo, essa união especial com o mundo que é a de quem escreve e a de quem lê.
Acima de tudo, fui um ser senciente, um animal pensante, neste belo planeta, e isso foi, por si só, um enorme privilégio e aventura."
December 26, 2022
Singurul motiv (superficial, asta-i clar) pentru care nu i-am dat cinci stele este cä aceastã carte-mãrturisire este atât de scurtã....
February 14, 2019
Quando em poucas páginas se diz tanto, se levantam tantas questões!
November 29, 2020
Qué gran persona.
June 26, 2021
Não há como não gostar deste pequeno livrinho. De tal maneira, que adicionei de rajada cerca de mais uns seis de Oliver Sacks para ler em breve. Ainda não tinha descoberto este autor e fiquei francamente feliz por ter a oportunidade de o conhecer melhor. Adoro a sua escrita simples e profunda e gosto das temáticas abordadas.
Almejo esta clarividência e serenidade nesses anos vindouros!
”Vimos triunfos e tragédias, altos e baixos, revoluções e guerras, grandes realizações e profundas ambiguidades.(…)Tornamo-nos mais conscientes da transitoriedade e, talvez, da beleza. Aos oitenta anos, podemos aceder a uma visão mais ampla e alcançamos um sentido vivo e vivido da história que não é possível noutras idades. Posso imaginar, sentir nos ossos, o que é um século, coisa que me seria impossível aos quarenta ou aos sessenta anos. Não penso na velhice como uma época cada vez mais sombria que de certo modo teremos de suportar e enfrentar da melhor maneira possível, mas como uma época de tempo livre e de liberdade, um tempo que nos liberta das falsas urgências de anos anteriores – um tempo que me deixa livre de explorar o que desejo e de reunir e unificar todos os pensamentos e sentimentos de uma vida inteira.”
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