cruel grace

"This is the tongue of the dead man, How far he is now, his actions / Around him like livingroom furniture, like a decor.'' -Sylvia Plath, Berck-Plage

Having viewed, read, and reviewed Le Scaphandre et le papillon, a.k.a. The Diving Bell and The Butterfly, I am moved to evangelize: You must see it; you must read it. It's the story of a Parisian named Jean-Dominique Bauby who, in his early forties, has a stroke and is left paralyzed with "locked-in syndrome," a rare condition in which the patient is physically incapacitated but mentally lucid. After a few weeks in a coma, he wakes to find himself in this state, in a hospital in Berck-du-mar, near the coast. He grapples with the desire to die, deep regret and sorrow for mistakes made in his life, and frustration with the inability to express himself, to laugh, to joke, to hug his children. His speech therapist devises a system in which he blinks his left eyelid, the only functioning part of his body, when she says the letter he wants to use, enabling him to spell out words and sentences. Miraculously (a vast understatement), he uses the system to compose a best-selling memoir, a sort of journalistic report from his "diving bell" body, where he resides, cruelly suspended between life and death. The "butterfly" is his mind, which delights and awes the reader with its vivid imagination and heartbreaking memories. The wonder of this book and film are truly beyond inspiring. It is unfathomably amazing grace that empowered Bauby to memorize and dictate his masterpiece.

As I lie here writing, bedridden with a stomach flu, I am reminded of his audacity to create, his passion for life, and the stunning compassion of all the caretakers around him. None of us, not one, has any excuse. We all must create beauty, and love and support one another, every moment.

The film's director, Texan Julian Schnabel said in an interview with Charlie Rose, "It really is a Buddhist movie. I didn't know I was a Buddhist, but I think I'm becoming one." Life is suffering, but Jean-Dominique Bauby is a shining example of one who found the path to the cessation of suffering.