Wednesday, 26 March: An inspiring movie

Tuesday night is half-price at the movies at my local mall. Yesterday evening friends and I were inspired by the unusual French movie: The diving bell and the butterfly. A true story, it relates how a former editor, Jean Dominique, editor of the French fashion mag, Elle, suffered a massive stroke while only in his early forties. It left him totally paralysed except for his left eyelid which he could blink! His speech therapist devised a code for communication using the letters of the alphabet. Watching him carefully, she repeated the letters one by one; he blinked at the letter he wanted to use and literally spelled out his sentences. In this way he dictated a short memoir which was published 10 days before his death from pneumonia. It is a most moving story and proved to me once more the ability of the human spirit to triumph against great odds. The diving bell was a symbol to Jean Dominique of his physical state, trapped in a speechless, seemingly useless body and the butterfly was the ability of his imagination and memory to transcend his suffering and create something beautiful.

We may not have experienced anything as remarkable as this story but I am sure you recognise the 'bounce back' factor! I love what Paul said in his second letter to the Corinthians (ch 4 verse 9): "We are struck down but not destroyed." How many times have you felt like that?

And to illustrate my point, I took a quick photo of a patch of common garden flowers, African marigolds. These little flowers grow everywhere in gardens over here. You can treat them badly but they just keep on producing these cheery little orange-gold flowers and they seed themselves everywhere, bringing colour to the most neglected garden. They are a symbol of resilience!