A Moment of Extreme Nerdiness

Remember the movie "Awakenings"? I remember watching part of it when I was really young, but it didn't make much of an impression on me, except that it involved Robin Williams with a beard.

Then my junior year of college, Oliver Sacks was the speaker at the convocation. I don't know that I'd have bothered to go, except I was in the choir and we sang a few songs at the event. Oliver Sacks is the neurologist who wrote the book Awakenings and the person on whom Robin Williams' character is based. And he was both adorable and fascinating.

I later read Awakenings (which he signed for me!) and The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat. I forgot to bring a book with me to the library tonight (which for the most part was not big loss because I was incredibly busy, and with some good reference questions, too!) so I found the library's copy of An Anthropologist on Mars. I haven't even finished the first of the seven stories, but one of the footnotes describes Anton's syndrome, in which individuals lose their sight but are completely unaware of the loss. It's as if they forget what vision even is. So weird.

I'm not really sure where I'm going with this, other than that Oliver Sacks has taught me that the brain is incredibly complex, confusing, and amazing. And if you're anywhere near as nerdy as I am, you should read his books.