In the spring of 1985, conductor Clive Wearing suffered from a virus that attacked his brain’s ability to form short-term memories. He was left with less than 2 minutes of recall at any given time.

To this day, Clive keeps a journal in a stilted attempt to record his existence:

• 8:31 AM: Now I am really, completely awake.
• 9:06 AM: Now I am perfectly, overwhelmingly awake.
• 9:34 AM: Now I am superlatively, actually awake.

Clive lives in a perpetual state of temporary standby. His entire awareness is limited to a tiny window of time — a momentary gap that creates for him a continuous moment of first awakening.