THE DiViNG BELL AND THE BUTTERFLY

This memoir made me upset, laugh, sad, grateful, confused and made me realize more in life. I am upset, not only at this memoir, but at the fact people actually have to endure “locked-in syndrome.” I feel it’s unfair for anyway to be locked inside their body, unable to move or take care of yourself, while your mind runs free. Jean-Dominique Bauby described it in the book as your body is the diving bell in which you’re trapped and your mind is the butterfly that flies unimaginable places. This memoir also made me laugh. I love the fact that he could be bitter and complain about how unfair his situation is, but instead he’s extremely sarcastic at points that make you giggle and hope to have that kind of attitude towards negatives in your own life. Parts of this memoir make me sad. For instance, when he’s singing the song by Henri Salvador: “Don’t you fret, baby, it’ll be all right.” This saddens me, because he is now like the baby who needs everything done for him and people keep saying that it’s going to be okay. When even he knows it’s not going to change anything. It’s amazing that someone could write this unbelievable memoir and makes me grateful when I think of what I do have in my life compared to others like Bauby. At times this book made me a bit confused. I also feel that’s due to the lack of time in which I could sit down and really get connected with this book. Yet I still found so much meaning in it. This memoir made me realize that I don’t want to have any regrets. Bauby says, “Mithra-Grandchamp is the women we were unable to love, the chances we failed to seize, the moments of happiness we allowed to drift away.” I don’t want to look back on life and feel this way. “Mysterious paradox: time, motionless here, gallops out there.” Another thing Bauby said that made me realize, don’t let life pass you by. The scary thing is, we could end up like Jean-Dominique Bauby, wishing we had lived our lives, but now just living like The Diving Bell and the Butterfly.