There will be no one like us when we are gone, but then there is no one like anyone else, ever. When people die, they cannot be replaced. They leave holes that cannot be filled, for it is the fate—the genetic and neural fate—of every human being to be a unique individual, to find his own path, to live his own life, to die his own death. I cannot pretend I am without fear. But my predominant feeling is one of gratitude."
Encouraged by the words of one of his favorite philosophers, David Hume, who, upon learning that he was mortally ill at age 65, wrote a short autobiography in a single day in April of 1776, which he entitled "My Own Life", Oliver Sacks wrote several essays which were published just two weeks before his death on August, 30, 2015. The above is a quote taken from this volume of essays which he named "Gratitude".
I still remember when I first had heard of Oliver Sacks: I was swapping books with a shipmate during a week-long "Hunting Komodo by Camera" boat trip across the Indonesian archipelago. I gave him a Joseph Conrad novel in exchange for one he'd finished reading, "The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat", and I've been reading Oliver Sacks' books ever since.
No writer has succeeded in capturing the medical and human drama of illness as honestly and as eloquently as Oliver Sacks. The four essays contained in "Gratitude" form an ode to the uniqueness of each human being and to gratitude for the gift of life. Read it! You won't regret it.
