Diving and sort of sinking...

I approached this book with a degree of trepidation knowing the subject matter, and I'm afraid that dread didn't abate on reading it. Despite finding the prose beautifully crafted and lyrical, I still couldn't get round the horror of Jean-Do's situation. I got so much more of the diving bell than the butterfly. But maybe that simply reflects my glass half empty nature, my propensity to more readily engage with the negative. And my fear that I'd be unable to "fly" in such a situation, I'm not sure I'd be able to "forge the glorious substitute destinies"!

Emily assures me the film is uplifting, but I'm not sure I've the stomach for it yet - may get round to it some day.

For me "locked in syndrome", is a metaphor that resonates with us all, I'd imagine either consciously or unconsciously. Aren't we all locked in to the finiteness of our decaying bodies and our inability to connect with/relate to one another the way we were designed to and long to? "Nothing was missing except me. I was elsewhere" (Pg 87).

Like Val, I particularly enjoyed the chapter on the Alphabet. Communication is such a fine art. I can relate to being and being on the receiving end of, the nervous type (take charge of the conversation), the reticent (who answer in monosyllables) or the meticulous (where natural exchange/banter is stilted for precision)...

The book left me pensive, and longing all the more for the new creation, "He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning nor crying nor pain any more, for the former things have passed away" (Revelation 21:4)

"I'll be off now..."