Ramblings, Thoughts And Chronicles Of A Mustachely: Clive Wearing: The Man without a Memory. Brilliant stuff!

For about a month now, Vanessa and I have been watching all these different documentary series on the human brain. One of them is called called My strange brain. Each episode focuses on four people that are affected with memory disorders and strange sleeping patterns. It's very sad, frightening! So, a few weeks ago I stumbled across anouther documentary on youtube or some like that... I forget where really...But, it made a deep impression on me. Even though I olny saw so little of it at the time I didn't really even know who or what it was about, except that it concerned a man in England who'd lost his memory in a very profound way. Then the other day, just by chance, I came across anouther documentry on the same subject, and finally learned his story. His name is Clive Wearing, a British musician, conductor, and musicologist who came down with encephalitis about twenty years ago. A sudden attack that left him with only his short-term memory. Now short-term memory is a wonderful thing--it allows us to remember things briefly--but it's not everything. Ordinarily, after events or facts are put in our short-term memory for a few seconds, we can either delete them or store them for future reference. It's this long-term storage capacity that Clive Wearing utterly lacks. And I mean utterly! Lots of people--especially the elderly--have some problems with memory. But, Wearing has essentially no long-term memory making his situation all the more horrific. It's so hard to explain without seeing the man himself on the tapes. There is something so utterly gripping and profoundly disturbing about him, Something that I would never wish on a living soul. His life has been shattered and blasted, and yet he is still alive--a terrible fate, indeed. But there's another thing about Wearing, and that's the real reason I'm writing this. From the beginning of his illness Clive always could remember certain elements about himself and his life, even though he had no memories of a single actual event in a life filled with honors and accomplishments as well as personal fulfillment. He remembered, for example, that he'd been a musician and conductor. He remembered he was married and who his wife was; he remembered his children from a previous marriage (although not their names). That was pretty much all he remeber. I'm going to put the clips up from the this documentry on him... Just WATCH it! It will amaze you. I have often wondered who a person becomes when they can't remember who they are. For Clive, his love is the constant that he carries with him regardless of all else. This is very encouraging! This documentry on Clive Wearing moved me to tears. Maybe it will do the same to you!