Have you ever imagined writing a book not by hand, foot or other limbs? Imagine if you write with the left eyelid? If you say it is impossible to do, you certainly do not know anyone named Jean Dominique Bauby, He is the editor-in-chief of Elle magazine.
What an amazing spirit of life and determination and willingness to write and share the story of his life so extraordinary. He died three days after his book was published.
After knowing what happened to Jean Dominique Bauby in his life, you would have thought:
"Whatever the problems and the burdens of our lives are almost nothing compared to Jean Dominique Bauby's problem!"
In 1995, Jean was hit by a stroke which caused her entire body to become paralyzed. He had a so-called locked-in syndrome, a total paralysis he called "Like a thought in a bottle."
Indeed he can still think clearly but can not speak or move his body. The only muscle that can still work is the left eyelid. So that's how he communicates with nurses, hospital doctors, his family and friends.
Here's how Jean wrote the book. They (the family, the nurse, their friends) show letter by letter, and Jean will blink when the letters shown are the ones she chooses.
"Unbelieveable,"
Yes, that's the reaction of everyone who reads his story. For us, writing activities may be trivial and become commonplace. However, if we are told to write in the way of Jean, we must cry for days and not a finished book, but may ask forgiveness not to do what Jean did in the making of her book.
In 1996 he died at the age of 45 years after completing his memoirs he wrote in a very special way. The title, Le Scaphandre et le Papillon (The Bubble and the Butterfly).
Jean is an example of a person who does not yield to the fate outlined for her. She remained alive in paralysis and kept thinking clearly to be a useful person, although to swallow even spit, she could not, because all the muscles and nerves in her body were paralyzed.
But what we should emulate is how he responds to his life situation well and remains a human being, even willing to play a direct role in the film that tells himself.
Jean, living happily and optimistically, with her breath-like condition. While we who live without a problem weighing Jean, often a human who always complains.
Carl Jung, once wrote thus:
"The most frightening and inconvenient part is receiving whole self, and the most difficult thing to open is a closed mind."
So, no matter how messy we are today, remember we can still swallow saliva, still can eat and move the other limbs.