Diving Bell #4

1. After reading Vegetable, respond to Bauby's statement: "I belonged on a vegetable stall and not the human race." Why do you think it is necessary for humans to put people into categories? Is our language so limiting in describing the world that we need a way to organize our thoughts?
The human race is typically characterized by developed thinking, emotions, and action. Giving someone a hug, laughing, talking... If you can't do all this, you "don't belong to the human race" and you are thought of as something else, a "vegetable".
I think it is necessary for humans to place people in categories because this is how our brain works: "I am like these people, I am NOT like THESE people, so I belong HERE." And that is how we know that WE are not "vegetables". I am a teenager, I am a Sturgis student, I am... whatever I happen to categorize myself as at that specific moment so that I know what role to play, how to act, etc. And we know who we can talk to and who we can not, for example, if there are people grouped as "nerds" in the cafeteria, and one wants to be seen as "cool", one cannot talk to the "nerds".
Yes, I think language does limit us, but THAT is not WHY we need a way to organize our thoughts - our limited language is one of the many ways we attempt TO organize our thoughts, it just needs some help sometimes. Plus-I'm not sure how to phrase this- some things simply aren't thought of with words in our minds, like groups of people can be more of an idea or an image.

2. Bauby claims that, "Capturing the moment, these small slices of life...I hoard all these letters like treaure." What do you hoard and why?
I tend to hoard, mentally, memories of moments in time when I did things with people I love, a hug, a conversation, etc., maybe even only a dream I had about them. I write a lot of these things down in a sort of diary so I won't forget these moments of bliss, so I can look back at them later and smile and wish I was right back in that moment... I hold onto these moments because I like to feel acceptance and to share things with people, a look, a touch, a connection. I value them... What if the person died or went away or... I need these moments of life and joy to hang onto.

3. Read Outing and respond to Bauby's statement: "I know who he is, but who is he really?" Is he getting any closer to understanding what makes people tick? Also, why will Bauby never tire of the smell of French Fries?
Bauby knows who "Fangio" IS, he is the guy from the hospital who can't sit... But Bauby doesn't know what kind of person the man is or what his job was or how he used to be - Bauby had just finished talking about how people don't know how HE was before the accident happened, the editor of the Elle, etc.
Bauby is discovering certain things about what makes people the way they are: perhaps the reason people like him, paralyzed or severely disabled, are not all full of smiles is that we don't understand how frustrating and depressing it is to have to sit all day without moving, barely (but painfully and SLOWLY) communicating with others, and being perceived as a pitiable lump, a "vegetable". He is also discovering firsthand the way people separate themselves from other categories of people, such as the still-mobile patients in the gym who turn away from Bauby on his board to "stare at the fire detector" or the way the hospital is mentally divided between the groups of obese people, old people, paralyzed people... Humans feel uncomfortable when presented with other people that are very unfamiliar to them or more misfortunate than them because they do not quite know how to react to a different situation than they are used to. We like our comfort zones.
Bauby will never tire of the smell of French fries because olfactory sense memory is the strongest to conjure images and memories, so he probably has pleasant memories of his childhood or something when he smells the fries. ( I don't remember his mentioning fries before/after to explain why they would be specifically important to him...). Bauby cannot eat real food through his mouth, so potent food smells to him are probably very valuable because he loves food but cannot eat it, so at least he can smell it.

4. Read Twenty to One. Bauby claims that, "the memory of that event has only come back to me now, now doubly painful: regret for a vanished past and, above all, remorse for lost opportunities." Do you ever look back on something in your life as a "small near miss"? Is it ever beneficial to have regrets?
I definitely think back on times when I should have done something, or moments when I wish I had taken an opportunity, or just acted differently. Sometimes I say something to a friend or family member that later I really wish I hadn't, or I don't give someone a compliment because I'm too scared or just think it doesn't matter, to find out later that they were having a crummy day and would have loved a compliment...
I think it can be beneficial to have SOME regrets because it teaches you (hopefully) not to make those mistakes again in the future. For example, if I tell my friend the truth about what I think she is wearing, and then later regret saying that because it did not do good for our relationship, then I will probably NOT say something like that next time. However, we cannot control the past, and if we focus too much on our past failings and missed opportunities, it will do us no good and our hearts/minds will not thrive. So we should consider our regrets and learn from them, but now dwell on them like a cancer.

5. Read Duck Hunt and explain what Bauby means by the statement: "I must have butterfly hearing."
He tunes in specifically on the sounds of the"butterflies" flapping their wings; what he is really doing is training himself to let go of the situation and his current circumstances, and focus on good happy thoughts of freedom, to let his imagination run away. He needs to do this because otherwise he will sink under the depression of his "diving bell" and he will go insane.

6. Read Sunday. Why do you think Bauby dreads this day?
There is noone in the hospital to talk to him and cheer him up and distract him from his oppressive "diving bell" and he feels very lonely and bored on Sundays. He LIKES communication and talking to people, using his brain (and his (one eyelid), and when he cannot do that for a whole day, he dreads it.