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The Late, Great, Oliver Sacks
Oliver Sacks, New York City, 2000
With a deep sigh, I woke up yesterday to the news of Oliver Sacks’ passing. Like many who had read his riveting OpEd about his terminal illness, we knew this was coming. I’d become familiar with his work through pieces in The New Yorker, but it was fascinating to recently learn about his personal life. He was a closeted gay man who didn’t publically come out until this year. I particularly loved this detail shared by the Times that after 35 years of celibacy and “at a certain distance from life,” Dr. Sacks writes about unexpectedly falling in love — “(for God’s sake!) I was in my 77th year” – which required giving up “the habits of a lifetime’s solitude,” like decades of meals that consisted mostly of cereal or sardines, eaten “out of the tin, standing up, in 30 seconds.”
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I can’t help but adore this man from afar. Love his writing and humanism, his fascinating intellect and his compelling self-examination and disclosure with the antidote that conveys depth without excessiveness. He just about always felt pitch perfect, a difficult mantel to carry but he did without it seeming a burden. He’s been a companion and inspiration. I’m grateful.
And he kept his great intelligence and lucidity until the very end.
RIP, Oliver Sacks. His joy and love for humanity will be missed.Even his eyes speak of caring for others.
A couple of my FB friends knew Sacks. He sounds like he was equally amazing close up.
Solitude can yield so many unsung rewards.
Tell me more about what you mean.
The fact that he lived much of his adult life in solitude while producing volumes of scholarly work about the human brain is no accident. Solitude allows you to think clearly and deeply without distraction. There’s a lot of creativity and knowledge to gain through solitude. Yet there is societal stigma attached to it, hence the “unsung rewards” part.
I suppose Sacks’ unique brilliance triumphed over any social stigma. And I’m glad he found love. It’s a sweet end part of his story.