humanity

The Diving Bell and The Butterfly is based on the memoir of Jean-Dominque Bauby, editor-in-chief of Elle magazine. After suffering a massive stroke, Jean-Dominique lived with locked-in syndrome, meaning that though his mind was active and healthy, his body, except for his eyes and minor head movement, was paralyzed.

A speech therapist devised a system so that Jean-Dominique could communicate by blinking his left eye (his right eye had to be sewn closed because of problems--I can't stand watching anything related to surgery, needles, or sharp objects and eyes). She repeated each letter of the alphabet (arranged according to popularity rather than in alphabetical order), and he blinked at the correct letter to spell words.

After Jean-Dominique learned the system, he contacted the publisher that had recently signed a contract with him. He wanted to write his memoir.

This movie is some Swiss Family Robinson story. It doesn't gloss over the ugliness of the disease, making it some beautiful conduit without which Jean-Dominique would have never discovered himself. It is wonderfully acted, directed and filmed, often in a documentary style. When Jean-Dominique first wakes in the hospital after coming out of a coma (and for quite a bit after that), you see everything from his hazy perspective. My husband and I cringed at the blurry, vacillating objects. It's hard to watch, in other words, attempting to give you a taste of Jean-Dominique's adjustment.

Jean-Dominique is not suddenly some saint because of his stroke and syndrome. He feels sorry for himself; he doesn't always treat people well. In fact, at times, he can be an ass (at least in the movie--who knows what's fictionalized and what's true to form).

But here's what amazed me: even at this point, when his body betrays him, when he cannot function as he once did, he responds with creativity and culture. He chooses to use his imagination. This is how integral creating is to humanity. I found myself wondering if he, in fact, acted more fully human than I do watching TV on the couch every night (or in the office crammed together with my husband on the one overstuffed chair, since we no longer have cable and watch TV shows on the Internet). This shamed me. How can I complain about the difficulties of writing? He awoke early in the morning, considered what he wanted to write, memorized it, then dictated it by eye-blinks later that morning for four hours each day. No surprisingly, his book became a bookseller.

But he didn't have much time to enjoy that. He died ten days after it released.

Writing the book wasn't about acknowledgement. It was about creating itself and about communicating.

Let me be blunt (again): I don't understand the over-spiritualization in North America. To clarify: I don't mean that I believe there are things related to spirituality and things unrelated to spirituality. I mean that we talk about things in a hyped-up manner, using what we call spiritual terms in a manner not found in the Bible.

Side note: I blame this on the so-called Second Great Awakening, my go-to scapegoat for all spiritual things wrong in the United States.

Side note 2: This over-spiritualization somehow combines with and emerged from a prevailing Deist view and value system in the foundations of our country.

To wit: talk about God's will typically abrogates our lack of responsibility, smoothes over our egos, and undergirds our desires. For example, we say, "I'll get that promotion if it's God's will."  I don't mean to take away from God's sovereignty or his personal and intimate interaction in his creation, but let's be honest here. We may not get that promotion because we drink in the gossip at the water cooler or because we turn in reports late or because we fail to work with excellence. Or we may not get that promotion because someone else is better for the job. (Our egos can take rejection better when it's God's will. To take this more personally, if I'm called to write, I can better accept the numerous rejections.) Or we say, "It's God will that I move to Hawaii" or leave such-and-such ministry/job/relationship. Let me also say here that this doesn't necessarily negate the legitimacy of moving to Hawaii or leaving a certain ministry/job/relationship. But who can argue our decision when it's God's will?

But that's not why I'm here today. I've blogged about calling before and about wisdom here, here, here, and here (the series back at the Tapestry blog). Today, I want to externally process some thoughts about balancing ideas of God's calling, human responsibility, and God's divine intervention. By externally process, I mean, please addend your thoughts. (Note, at this point in time, I won't reference the verses from which I glean my thoughts, but I'd be happy to in the comments if someone has questions. Also, some of these may overlap, but I included them for the nuances.) With that in mind . . .

We act

• in God's grace
• in prayer
• with wisdom
• in service to God
• for his glory
• with love for our neighbor
• in freedom
• as his image bearers
• creatively
• in accordance to God's desires for the world and humanity as revealed in Scripture
• doing the good works God has prepared for us
• with the gifts, talents and resources he's given us
• with responsibility to our fellow man and to the earth
• despite and in our circumstances
• as we are transformed and becoming more like Christ (and seeking to have the mind of Christ)
• trusting God to use everything for our good and to his purpose
• displaying the fruit of the Spirit
• with faith, hope and love
• in the power of the Holy Spirit, depending on him
• and knowing we can't control the outcome but trusting that God's will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

After Logan's painful, almost fatal surgery (the good thing about a prequel is you know Wolverine doesn't die!), he runs naked into a barn while the farmowners, driving up to their home, look on. Featured prominently on the back of their truck is a bumper sticker: "Not all who wander are lost."

This Tolkien quote does two things.

I'm up today at the Tapestry Blog talking about what it means to be human.

From the post:

"Flip through Scripture, and you'll find that while God uses angels to close mouths of lions (no comments from the peanut gallery), accompany His chosen through fire, and announce good tidings of great joy, He more often uses ordinary, even disgusting humans to do extraordinary, beautiful things."