{"id":29901,"date":"2015-02-19T11:03:46","date_gmt":"2015-02-19T17:03:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ancientrails.com\/?p=29901"},"modified":"2015-02-19T11:03:46","modified_gmt":"2015-02-19T17:03:46","slug":"oliver-sacks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ancientrails.com\/?p=29901","title":{"rendered":"Oliver Sacks"},"content":{"rendered":"

Imbolc \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 Black Mountain Moon<\/p>\n

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Excerpts from a moving, thoughtful and humane response to the final act of the third phase. Click on the link to read the whole article, which I recommend.<\/p>\n

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My Own Life<\/a><\/h2>\n

Oliver Sacks<\/h1>\n<\/div>\n<\/header>\n
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By OLIVER SACKS\u00a0<\/span><\/span>

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“A MONTH ago, I felt that I was in good health, even robust health. At 81, I still swim a mile a day. But my luck has run out \u2014 a few weeks ago I learned that I have multiple metastases in the liver. Nine years ago it was discovered that I had a rare tumor of the eye, an ocular melanoma. Although the radiation and lasering to remove the tumor ultimately left me blind in that eye, only in very rare cases do such tumors metastasize. I am among the unlucky 2 percent…<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

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…<\/p>\n

I feel a sudden clear focus and perspective. There is no time for anything inessential. I must focus on myself, my work and my friends. I shall no longer look at \u201cNewsHour\u201d every night. I shall no longer pay any attention to politics or arguments about global warming.<\/p>\n

This is not indifference but detachment \u2014 I still care deeply about the Middle East, about global warming, about growing inequality, but these are no longer my business; they belong to the future. I rejoice when I meet gifted young people \u2014 even the one who biopsied and diagnosed my metastases. I feel the future is in good hands.”<\/p>\n

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Oliver Sacks, a professor of neurology at the New York University School of Medicine, is the author of many books, including \u201cAwakenings\u201d and \u201cThe Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Imbolc \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 Black Mountain Moon Excerpts from a moving, thoughtful and humane response to the final act of the third phase. Click on the link to read the whole article, which I recommend. My Own Life … Continue reading Oliver Sacks<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-29901","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ancientrails.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29901","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ancientrails.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ancientrails.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ancientrails.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ancientrails.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=29901"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.ancientrails.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29901\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29902,"href":"https:\/\/www.ancientrails.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29901\/revisions\/29902"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ancientrails.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=29901"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ancientrails.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=29901"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ancientrails.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=29901"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}