Unclipping Oliver

It's on the jacket as a blurb. It appears in callouts.

My predominant feeling is one of gratitude. I have loved and been loved. I have been given much and I have given something in return. Above all, I have been a sentient being, a thinking animal, on this beautiful planet, and that in itself has been an enormous privilege and adventure.

Fair enough. But the celebration of literacy is missing.

I cannot pretend I am without fear. […] I have read and traveled and thought and written. I have had an intercourse with the world, the special intercourse of writers and readers.

Reassembling the pieces to the two-paragraph status…

I cannot pretend I am without fear. My predominant feeling is one of gratitude.I have loved and been loved. I have been given much and I have given something in return; I have read and traveled and thought and written. I have had an intercourse with the world, the special intercourse of writers and readers.

Above all, I have been a sentient being, a thinking animal, on this beautiful planet, and that in itself has been an enormous privilege and adventure.

"My Own Life" in Gratitude by Oliver Sacks

And so for day 1510
31.01.2011