If you have read or listened to My Story, then you will have heard of the next recommender. You might actually be surprised or shocked as he was involved in the “Biggest Mistake of my Life”. But I can learn from my mistakes, and I can also extend forgiveness. In this case, I’ve done both. My recommendations have come from family and friends, and I consider this man a friend, especially as I was able to attend his wedding reception at the beginning of 2018.
Recommendation #14 from Aaron Beverly
The Mind’s Eye by Oliver Sacks
Oliver Wolf Sacks, (9 July 1933 – 30 August 2015) was a British neurologist, naturalist, historian of science, and author. Born in Britain, and mostly educated there, he spent his career in the United States. He believed that the brain is the “most incredible thing in the universe.” He became widely known for writing best-selling case histories about both his patients’ and his own disorders and unusual experiences.
As I heard the stories of Oliver Sacks and his patients, I was fascinated to learn more about the brain’s capabilities and plasticity. “The origin of writing and reading cannot be understood as a direct evolutionary adaptation. It is dependent on the plasticity of the brain, and the fact that even within the small span of a human lifetime, experience — experiential selection — is as powerful an agent of change as natural selection.” The individuals in this book would lose ways of seeing, understanding, and interacting with the world, and yet they still would find new ways of coping and surviving.
“The problems never went away, but I became cleverer at solving them”
I am also approaching my forties in the next two years. While I could be distraught and dismayed by that thought, I choose to appreciate the life experiences that I have had. In fact, my face is stamped with those experiences. “Our faces bear the stamp of our experiences and character; at forty, it is said, a man has the face he deserves” I’m pretty happy about this face, especially since I had my strabismus corrected earlier this year. Another connection I experienced, one of the chapters in the book even talked about stereo vision and strabismus.
Overall, I enjoyed hearing these stories, as they help me to experience other people’s lives and perspectives. It also made me appreciate and enjoy how beautifully my brain and body work together. I know that might not always be the case.
“There is a paradox here—a delicious one—which I cannot resolve: if there is indeed a fundamental difference between experience and description, between direct and mediated knowledge of the world, how is it that language can be so powerful? Language, that most human invention, can enable what, in principle, should not be possible. It can allow all of us, even the congenitally blind, to see with another person’s eyes.”
Thanks for checking out another recommendation. Of course there is a song! Today’s song comes from my December 2018 ReEstablished playlist for the 21st day of the month.
I got you right where I want you
You’re right where you need to be
I follow on you
In perfect harmony