Respected author and neurologist Dr. Oliver Sacks (previously at Neatorama), in a column he wrote yesterday for the New York Times, revealed the sad news that an ocular melanoma he was treated for nine years ago has metastasized in his liver; thus he has not long to live.
Yet much like with his other writings including Awakenings and The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat, Sacks has wisdom to impart with regard to the force and frailties of life, as well as living with meaning and purpose. Sacks writes,
"I feel grateful that I have been granted nine years of good health and productivity since the original diagnosis, but now I am face to face with dying. The cancer occupies a third of my liver, and though its advance may be slowed, this particular sort of cancer cannot be halted.It is up to me now to choose how to live out the months that remain to me. I have to live in the richest, deepest, most productive way I can.
Over the last few days, I have been able to see my life as from a great altitude, as a sort of landscape, and with a deepening sense of the connection of all its parts. This does not mean I am finished with life."
Read Sacks' full essay at the New York Times. It's not a long read, but it is powerful.
Image: OliverSacks.com