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Boy in a plastic bubble

Boy in a plastic bubble

Many years ago I saw a film starring a young John Travolta.  Actually it was released in 1976 which woul dhave made John Travolta about 22 I guess.

Basically the story was a true life story about lad named Tod Lubitch who was born with an immune deficiency and as a result could not make physical contact with or interact normally with other people.

The film looked at the way in which this impacted him and the efforts he made to have a “normal” life.

In case you are wondering the picture I have chosen to accompany this post is not actually from the film at all.  I just really liked the picture because it so readily identifies (at least to me) the isolation the boy feels and the sadness that is written all over his face.

Actually the film wasn’t a great film by any stretch of the imagination although I seem to remember it winning a primetime emmy and being nominated for two or three other awards. No it’s impact on me was not because of any great cinematography or acting but because I could so easily empaphise with the main character and not because I shared the same physical illness but because I share the same isolation.

What struck me is how no matter how much you may try, not one of us on this side (the outside) of that plastic bubble knows exactly how it must feel to be trapped on that side (the inside) of that bubble never being able to come out or interact like others do.

See I have a plastic bubble!  It isn’t so much physical as it is mental but it’s resultant isolation is just as deadening and just as disheartening and you know what, when others don’t understand or comprehend how it feels to be trapped this side (trapped inside) of this bubble it makes it all the more poingnant and all the more painful.