Jean Dominique Bauby – The Diving Bell and the Butterfly

Jean-Dominique Bauby (April 23, 1952 – March 9, 1997) was a well-known French journalist and author and editor of the French fashion magazine ELLE. On December 8, 1995 at the age of 43, Bauby suffered a massive stroke. When he woke up twenty days later, he found he was entirely speechless; he could only blink his left eyelid. This rare condition is called Locked-in Syndrome, a condition wherein the mental faculties are intact but the entire body is paralyzed. Bauby also lost 60 pounds in the first 20 weeks after his stroke.

Nevertheless despite his condition, Bauby fulfilled his dream to write a book which he titled The Diving Bell and the Butterfly by blinking when the correct letter was reached by a person slowly reciting the alphabet over and over again. The book was published in France in 1997. The diving bell of Bauby’s title was his bodily confinement and limitation, the butterfly his imagination.

After fulfilling his dream, Bauby died just 10 days later of pneumonia. In 2007, painter-director Julian Schnabel released a film version of The Diving Bell and the Butterfly which won Schnabel the best director prize at Cannes, a Golden Globe Award and an Academy Award nomination for Best Director.

A remarkable and inspiring true story about the awesome power of imagination, perseverance, and dedication to live one’s dream!

Now arise, transcend your excuses, triumph over your circumstances, and live your dreams!
Bauby’s life story gives me hope to find a way to live my dreams when I have no money to travel internationally and uplift humanity ministerially as is my customary life tendency. Nevertheless perhaps like Bauby through the printed page and my writings, until I lay hold of some money, I can journey my world inwardly until I resume my travels globally.

 

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