Hi Steven:
Did you see the short documentary on Clive Wearing ITV Monday night?
He's the chap who 20 years ago had the herpes simplex virus destroy virtually all of his memory capabilities. His memory span can now be measured in seconds.
The documentary was crap - everyone asking him stupid questions over and over again which just stirred him up or upset him. But I found the footage of him really moving - it was something about him being outside time, stripped naked of his 'story'. In the early years of his condition he was in a kind of hell but in the recent footage he seemed quite settled and had found a kind of peace - so something had been learned even though, to him, he had only just 'woken up'. I can't quite put into words what I feel - it touched something very deep inside. The way his energy leapt out towards his wife each time she visited him brought tears to my eyes - he didn't recognise her but there was such love. The words that keep coming to mind are - raw essence outside time - blah blah blah - don't really know what I'm trying to say - just felt the urge to mail you!
Mark
P.S. Wearing had been a renowned conductor and musician specialising in early music, and he now has auditory hallucinations - he would regularly comment that he could hear faint and distant music. Other regular comments would be, "You are the first human beings I've seen," and, "There is no day or night, there are no dreams or thoughts."
Did you see the short documentary on Clive Wearing ITV Monday night?
He's the chap who 20 years ago had the herpes simplex virus destroy virtually all of his memory capabilities. His memory span can now be measured in seconds.
The documentary was crap - everyone asking him stupid questions over and over again which just stirred him up or upset him. But I found the footage of him really moving - it was something about him being outside time, stripped naked of his 'story'. In the early years of his condition he was in a kind of hell but in the recent footage he seemed quite settled and had found a kind of peace - so something had been learned even though, to him, he had only just 'woken up'. I can't quite put into words what I feel - it touched something very deep inside. The way his energy leapt out towards his wife each time she visited him brought tears to my eyes - he didn't recognise her but there was such love. The words that keep coming to mind are - raw essence outside time - blah blah blah - don't really know what I'm trying to say - just felt the urge to mail you!
Mark
P.S. Wearing had been a renowned conductor and musician specialising in early music, and he now has auditory hallucinations - he would regularly comment that he could hear faint and distant music. Other regular comments would be, "You are the first human beings I've seen," and, "There is no day or night, there are no dreams or thoughts."
2 comments
What a moving email. What some people survive!
Thanks for allerting me to this post, Steven.
How unimaginable to see everyone, always as if for the first time. To not judge whether they are good, talented, worthy of our energy, in some way deficient to our expectations. To not be able to hold our opinions, even secretly, about another, to be unable to have preconceptions at all. To allow whatever passes between people to spring suddenly and unhindered from the heart. Must a human lose all memory to be able to acheive this otherwise most natural of states? It actually makes me very sad. In everything I read, say, write there is endless judging and comparing, often for 'noble' reasons. How to 'forget self join with other'? Not in the narrow sense. Really, how to put it all down?
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