736 entries.
Emily
from Water port, New York
Dear Dr. Sacks,
I have just read your beautiful New York Times article about your metastatic cancer. I love your books, your kindness, and, your championing of the "misunderstood and the marginalized". You have been my great hero. Though I am in a public place (the only place where I have access to wi-fi for my iPad), I can't seem to stop crying. Please know how many of us you have freed and how much we love you.
--emily
Bonnie Topper-Bricker
from Northville Michiga
Dr. Sacks,
I just finished your memoir and I wanted to tell you how much I enjoyed it. I find your writing engaging, insightful, magical and utterly humble. I am a hospice and palliative care nurse who has worked in this field for 20 years. I send you my hope for a life filled with all the things you love and a death that is gentle and serene. A few years ago I commissioned a composer to write a septet in honor of my husband. My husband is the director of the Palliative Medicine service at the Henry Ford Hospitals. The piece is a wonderful depiction of his life. The end of the piece is about end of life. I would like to send you a copy of the piece. The musicians who recorded it are from the Detroit Symphony. Thank you. May your last think, be thanks...Bonnie Topper- Bricker
Dianne
Elements in their forever
Assigned seats
Rilke’s angels
Drift on the blackboard
Stars lit between
To interrupt
Anxiously gaze
In the back
To glow in supreme
Silence
Taking notes in
They won’t believe
My essay
They don’t need to
They’re born into
Voiced
Connection
Jamie Farquharson-Welsh
from Banchory
Dear Dr. Sacks,
I first came across you and your work at university circa 1990; my philosophy lecturer recommended The Man Who... to us when discussing what is real and what is not. Around that time Awakenings came out, and I was very moved by the account of the patients and their experiences.
At that time, during my university holidays, I nannied for a family whose daughter was 4, about to start school, had some challenging behaviours; ADD and ADHD were beginning to be talked about in the US, but not so much here in the UK. So I worked intuitively with her. Later her father was diagnosed, as she has been, with Aspergers' Syndrome.
I went on to work as a Careers Counsellor and manager; and often at the forefront of my mind is an openness to seeing that people's experience of and perception of the world is unique; to be accepted (if not always understood); and to try to live alongside them - whether as a client, a friend, a member of a team.
My point is that I think your work and approach has influenced that. There's a great humanity in your approach and view of others; a modesty; and an aspiration to see the other person as central, as the key, and to respect that.
At the moment I am trying to support a family member who has suffered a stroke, whose body and brain do not quite function as they did; again, just your approach on accepting is helpful to me.
So I thank you.
I have just finished listening to BBC Radio 4's abridged version of your autobiography and I suggest others should take a listen - a very pleasant and moving 1.5 hours... and of course to read the book.
Your openness and honesty is to be admired, and something we should all aspire to.
Very best wishes to you for your health and happiness.
Mary Morrison
from Norman, OK
I have had the pleasure of hearing some interviews with Dr. Sacks over the years, mostly on NPR, and my main impression (aside from my respect for his prodigious intelligence and research) is that he is a thoroughly decent individual, open, warm, and generous with his total being.
Nita Jain
from Lilburn, GA
Dear Dr. Sacks,
Like the late Carl Sagan, you have a gentle way of magnifying everything into brilliant resolution and reminding us of our place in the universe. I was quite delighted to read of your love for the physical sciences, as I am currently in the middle of Frank Wilczek’s A Beautiful Question. Beauty can truly be found in any field or context and Wilczek’s coverage of the concept reminds me of that Gerard Manley Hopkins’ poem, “Pied Beauty,” in which the author pronounces, “Glory be to God for dappled things.” As NPR blogger Adam Frank puts it, “Science — under all its theories, equations, experiments and data — is really trying to teach us to see the sacred in the mundane and the profound in the prosaic.”
Indeed, few experiences prove as humbling as observing the heavens. The night sky brings to mind the opening lines of a personal favorite: “Let us go then, you and I/ When the evening is spread out against the sky/ Like a patient etherized upon a table.” Meanwhile, consciousness continues to prove an elusive idea, as you mentioned. Is it a purely biological phenomenon or does it extend into the philosophical and spiritual realms? I think the most beautiful aspect of our universe is the sense of infinite mystery surrounding it; as Anaïs Nin explains it, “The possession of knowledge does not kill the sense of wonder and mystery. There is always more mystery.”
From your stories of patient case studies to your descriptions on the benefits of musical therapy, your words offered comfort and solace amidst adversity and uncertainty. When I was struggling with my own medical challenges (though nothing as serious as your struggles), I found works such as William Ernest Henley’s “Invictus” and Dylan Thomas’ “Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night” to be particularly uplifting and encouraging, and perhaps you will, too. Now, as an undergraduate, I am in the process of applying to medical school and will be visiting NYU School of Medicine in the next couple weeks; I know I will be humbled to walk in the same halls as you. I think the practice of medicine allows one to grow closer to his fellow brethren and fulfill the insightful words of Countee Cullen: "Your grief and mine/Must intertwine/Like sea and river/Be fused and mingle/Diverse yet single/Forever and forever."
I only hope I will fulfill my role with the same patience, compassion, dignity, and grace that you exemplify in your daily life. As one chapter closes and another begins, I wish you laughter and joy in the company of friends and family, exchanges of love among kindred spirits, courage as you confront your final battles, and peace and contentment in the knowledge that you have touched more lives than you know. From the deepest parts of my being, I thank you. Stay gold, dear Captain, our Captain.
Warm regards,
Nita Jain
Adam Shavit
from Creenwich, CT
Dear Dr. Oliver Sacks,
Thank you for writing so many wonderful books about your patients and their neurological disorders, and about your candid account of your personal and professional experiences. I have read your books in Hebrew as an adolescent and as an undergraduate student of psychology in Israel, and I continue to read your work and even share it now with my psychology students at Hunter College. Your books helped me realize that variation in brain structure and function not only have pronounced effects on our behavior and abilities but more importantly deliver us from the same physical world to different, even if parallel, worlds of the mind.
One of the clips I like to share with my students in my perception and consciousness classes shows your conversation with Sue Barry and her account of gaining through exercises the vivid perception of depth. Not only does this clip highlight the wonderful ability to adapt even in ‘old age’ and after the conventional ‘critical period’, but more importantly, this clip also sheds light on the question of subjective experience as separate from the ability to perform a task and even to know all that there is to know about it. The clip provides a neat response to the philosophical thought experiment, Mary's room, proposed by Frank Jackson at 1982. Upon seeing depth, Sue realizes that she was wrong at thinking she understood depth by knowing all that there was to know about it.
In my own path, I often think about an autobiographical detail you mentioned in 'Hallucinations'. When you started writing about your patients to wider audiences you were able to overcome your preoccupation with recreational drugs. I see a compelling example in your experience. Curious minds often meander in unusual directions and only a few find a path of realization consistent with self development and helping others.
I learned from your work so much through the years. Reading your work has been a formative experience for me, both personally and professionally. I continue to share your work with others.
With gratitude,
Adam Shavit, Ph.D.
Sterling J Haidt, MD
Unknown to you, our paths have crossed in different ways. My first meeting with you was at a neurology conference at Misecordia Hospital in the Bronx during an Einstein medical student rotation. "An interesting fellow," I remember thinking ... riding a motorcycle to one of the classiest areas of the Bronx." Next, it was reading some of your books. Next, I read that a classmate of mine from Einstein was treating you for malignant ocular melanoma (this was after, I was practicing in the SF Bay area at a retinologist). And now, I sadly read that you do not expect to live another year due to metastatic spread of the ocular tumor.
We are all are born knowing that one day our physical existence will disappear. It does not change the sadness we feel. I just wanted to let you know about another human being you have touched and that he will remember you.
Sterling
Leah Guerrero
from Los Angeles
Dear Oliver Sacks,
I just finished your book On the Move and I thought it time to reach out and say thank you. I first read your books Hat and Anthropologist on Mars in my neurobiology class as an undergrad. I recently read Uncle Tungsten and it is my favorite by far. Your words and your life fill me with elation. Thank you.
Michael Hanley
from Waddington, NY
I greatly enjoyed your autobiography. We are about the same age and my life is and has been very dull and uninteresting. But your life is and has been better than the best fiction. I think the first of your books I read was Awakenings. It was the perfect mix of neurological, social and environmental determinants of behavior. It was as if you were from an earlier generation of physicians. I had worked for such men and they had become my heroes.
I was disappointed by your opinion of Skinner. I think if you reread On Behaviorism and Verbal Behavior, you will see he ain't what they say about him.
Maureen Orr
from Jacksonville
Dear Dr. Sacks,
Thank you for brining so much humanity to medicine and neurology in particular. My son states he decided to become a neurologist after he read the book I shared with him, The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat. I have tried to read all of your books and On the Move struck me particularly. You can look at your life as a life very well lived not for yourself as much as for humanity. Thank you.
Marshall Zucker
from Wantagh, NY
We corresponded in December, 1999 about your lovely article in the New Yorker about the Periodic Table. Once again you write about that lovely resource. I scored 98 on the State Regents in Chemistry due to my love of the Periodic Table. That tied the two real excellent chemists. I could not light a Bunsen burner in the lab however.
The main point of my note is to wish you all the very best and thank you for all you have given the world...thus far and in the future.
Hardave S. Kharbanda
from San Antonio, TX
Dear Professor Sacks,
I have an MD and a DPhil in the field of MRI physics, and have had a strong lifelong interest in the field of early cancer detection. I am writing to you to give you my very best wishes as you continue to manage your cancer, to commend you on your deeply courageous and philosophical letters from both February and from this month in the New York Times, and to thank you for the incredible amount of work that you have done to educate the public about the many surprises surrounding the human mind and brain.
Given that you have spent so many years exploring the mystery of the mind and brain, I am not sure if you believe in the possibility of the persistence of the mind after death. I do happen to believe in that, both as a result of personal experience (I feel that I have received numerous messages from my maternal grandfather after he passed away in the spring of last year), from potentially scientifically verifiable accounts that others have given in regard to reincarnation and communications from departed loved ones, and from the simple observation that the mind itself appears to be a phenomenon that cannot be captured or described by the quantitative and rigid laws of physics.
I know that scientists tend to be extraordinarily skeptical of such stories, but I hope that an open-minded individual like yourself -- who has himself happened to observe and share so many remarkable patient experiences in his lifetime -- will consider these kinds of stories as “data” that should also be included in our attempt to understand the universe.
Anyway, Professor Sacks, I will certainly be thinking of you as I continue to work on the challenge of early cancer detection. I do send you my *warmest* wishes for peace and happiness during this final stage of your time in this life.
With my very best regards,
Dave
Hardave S. Kharbanda
Maeve O'Boyle
from Dublin, Ireland
Dear Dr. Sacks,
I just read your article on the Periodic Table and it brought me to tears. Your honesty at this difficult time has been so moving and so profound in nature that it is hard to describe how it has made me feel ( and many others too I am sure). You have managed to shed some light, levity and indeed hope with your wonderful prose. As you are walking us through your feelings, impressions and thoughts of what is to come, I feel we are all walking beside you on this journey. I can only thank you for contributing so profoundly over the years and for your continuing honesty during this time.
Yours,
Maeve
Mark Benson
from Santa Barbara, CA
Dear Dr. Sacks,
Thank you so much for your honesty, humility, and compassion. I have enjoyed your New Yorker writing over the years and especially just now reading On the Move.
In particular, as a gay man, I am grateful for all you are and all you have done, without the gayness being in the forefront. You are very much an inspiration in that way.
I am glad to know that you have enjoyed a good relationship in the last few years. Please tell Bill Hayes that I have his book, The Anatomist, and look forward to reading it.
Sincerely, Mark Benson
ester bugna
from Menlo Park CA
Your "labours of love" entered my life recently - how could I have missed them all these years?
Sending prayerful thoughts
ester
Patricia Giles
from Adjala, Ontario
Dr Sacks, you made the brain come alive for me. Reading your books has helped me make connections with the work of other scientists and advocates, especially for autism related writings.
Thank you so much.
Madeleine
from Eau Claire, Wisconsin
I am so inspired by all of your work, which I was initially introduced to while studying psychology at the University of Wisconsin- Eau Claire. After a professor of mine assigned our neuroscience class to read An Anthropologist on Mars, I made it a point to read every book of yours and have reread them all at least once since.
Recently listened to the RadioLab podcast, Telltale Hearts, and heard you mention that you are working on a children's book. I hope to read it to my son when he is born.
Best wishes to you.
Madeleine
Sylvia Solis Berwa
from Bronx, NY
Dr Sacks,
I am a middle aged Hispanic female from the Bronx. As an avid reader, I read the NYTimes review of your most popular book, The Man who mistook his...., watched the movie about you and have been hooked on you ever since...lol.
I have admired you. Your pursuit for understanding, your thoughtful analysis, the manner of your presentations and education I have benefited from.
Thank you for your continued discourse of your present challenges. My father too shares this illness. You share what my father does not speak of and I am again grateful, to turn to you to hear the clear review about terminality.
You are a powerful light.
May your neutrons surge forth to continued adventures. (and for my sake..may you find the way to communicate back to us so that we may continue to learn from you..lol)
Sinceramente with a hearty hug,
Sylvia Solis-Berwa
moses kateyenge
from Moshi, Tanzania
Dear Dr. Sacks,
It may be a suprise that someone thousands of miles away from where you are right now is in contact with you. It's not because he has read much of your inspirational work, or got a good bank of information about you. However I was checking new york times news page that had an article about the short time you had left to live and you would take it bravely up to the last second, then two days back I read another one again written by you expaining how your condition is started changing for the bad but still you are fighting on.
Dr Sacks, to others you may one of the most respected doctors, motivational speaker, but to me in you I see a path in life that we all ought to take, that ultimate fulfillment to our existence.You have at least given me hope that under the sun alot I cando for the betterment of humanity and at the same time tap into my spiritual being to possess that which the physical crave. To tap eternity.
Though your books are scarce in this part of the world,I will search for them and I know more about you, that even though you will be gone, I will I have you inform of the rich books you bequeath.Thank you Dr and may God be with you all the way.
