The three things making me happy this week all have a death theme. But for at least two of them, a lot of hope and peace and beauty is conveyed.

Oliver Sacks. In this New York Times op-ed, the writer and physician offers his thoughts upon learning he has terminal cancer. At age 81, he says he has several books nearly finished and there are other things he wants to do. But all in all, he sounds at peace.

Haunting portraits of abandoned places. This was a sidebar I saw when I was reading the Sacks piece. The images are striking and thought-provoking. The photos remind us that nothing worldly, not even the most beautiful things, will last. I can almost see the ghostly images of people in the photos.

The Wild Truth. I finished this book written by Carine McCandless, sister of Chris McCandless, the subject of Jon Krakauer’s Into the Wild. Carine has some information she wants to set straight about her family and what really led Chris to cut off contact with his family while he traversed the West. From page one, the honesty and raw emotion was brutal. Read my review here.