Had the special opportunity to see Kim Peek this evening...
Category Everything Else
If you're like me, you might be thinking "who?" Kim Peek is the person who inspired the movie Rainman with Dustin Hoffman. My wife's place of employment sponsored his appearance at a local hospital, and we were fortunate to have been able to attend and see a living miracle man...
Rather than try to recap his life, just click on the Wikipedia link above for the bio. All I can say is that it's incredible to watch him interact with the audience and to watch his recall and mental tracking from one subject to the next. It's amazing to think that he's read well over 9000 books (there *is* someone who reads more and faster than I do!) and can recall every one. And to watch his father who cares for him, and to think how difficult his life has been over his 75+ years...
If you ask the doctors, they'll tell you that someone with his brain formation (absence of the corpus callosum) should be barely functional. While his physical abilities are somewhat impaired, his mental abilities are unexplainable. People talk about how the average person only uses 10% of their brain. Compared to someone like Peek, 10% is far too generous... 1% is closer to the truth. The brain is truly a great mystery...
If you ever have the chance to see him and his father, you must do so... an incredible message and event.
If you're like me, you might be thinking "who?" Kim Peek is the person who inspired the movie Rainman with Dustin Hoffman. My wife's place of employment sponsored his appearance at a local hospital, and we were fortunate to have been able to attend and see a living miracle man...
Rather than try to recap his life, just click on the Wikipedia link above for the bio. All I can say is that it's incredible to watch him interact with the audience and to watch his recall and mental tracking from one subject to the next. It's amazing to think that he's read well over 9000 books (there *is* someone who reads more and faster than I do!) and can recall every one. And to watch his father who cares for him, and to think how difficult his life has been over his 75+ years...
If you ask the doctors, they'll tell you that someone with his brain formation (absence of the corpus callosum) should be barely functional. While his physical abilities are somewhat impaired, his mental abilities are unexplainable. People talk about how the average person only uses 10% of their brain. Compared to someone like Peek, 10% is far too generous... 1% is closer to the truth. The brain is truly a great mystery...
If you ever have the chance to see him and his father, you must do so... an incredible message and event.
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Happy Friday!
Posted by Curt Stone At 06:06:37 On 20/10/2006 | - Website - |