Archive for September, 2009

your dreams will be reduced down to breathing, and you will be grateful

The thing about not-being-a-person is: They will say those people and the price of being a person is to nod and agree that yes, those people aren’t people at all. They will have no idea who they are talking to. You yourself will start to forget, too. They will say a million small things that sow the seeds for violence done against you, and you will smile and let them. You will do math, constantly. How much do I want to be a person today? How much do I want this project to succeed? How much honesty can I afford? How much dishonesty will kill me? What is the cost of coming out? Is there a way to delay, soften, transmute? How long can I survive as half a person? Ever since the world ended ... I don't go out as much. People that I once befriended, just don't bother to stay in touch. Things that used to seem so splendid, don't really matter today. It's just as well the world ended -- it wasn't working anyway. Your dreams will be reduced down to breathing. [Read More]

on 03/5/12 | 2 Comments | Read More

Everyone Has Autism

By William Stillman Reprinted with permission of the author for one-time usage only. Ever awaken in the middle of the night and realize your arm is “asleep” from the elbow down?  It is a comm...[Read More]

on 09/29/09 | 1 Comment | Read More

Superstition and Obsession

It crossed my mind awhile back that individuals with autism are less likely to be superstitious. This conclusion would also suggest that autistics are not magical thinkers. If this generalization has ...[Read More]

on 09/28/09 | 1 Comment | Read More

The Internet and the Iceberg Whole

Item:  Ensign James “Peewee” Cobb, at 5’6”, 124 pounds, and 23 years old—in Pat Frank’s 1959 Cold War thriller Alas, Babylon—distinguishes himself as the only pilot in Fighting Forty-Fo...[Read More]

on 09/25/09 | No Comments | Read More

Enhanced Gaydar

I have friends with gaydar. Usually women, these friends can conclude a guy is gay after a brief conversation. I don’t think it’s the way they dress or the way they talk. It’s a childlike aspect...[Read More]

on 09/24/09 | No Comments | Read More

The World Needs Autism

By William Stillman Condensed from the new book The Soul of Autism: Looking Beyond Labels to Unveil Spiritual Secrets of the Heart Savants, published by New Page Books © 2008, William Stillman. ...[Read More]

on 09/22/09 | 2 Comments | Read More

Neurodiversity Not So Funny

I started talking when I was three.  My first memory is potato-on-the-spoon relay races in nursery school.  I felt humiliated and appalled at my lack of spoon/potato acumen. Grown-up humor I ...[Read More]

on 09/21/09 | 2 Comments | Read More

Neurodiversity, Hidden Knowledge and Hidden Talent

Anything that is understood or known consciously is understood or known unconsciously first. I can’t imagine how the reverse would be true. Knowledge has to come from somewhere, right? I often kn...[Read More]

on 09/19/09 | 2 Comments | Read More

Just So Story

Autism is a social condition. Rather, in the way that loud, rhythmic music is a symptom of puberty, the sudden rise in autism is a manifestation of extreme societal change. Both transitions are...[Read More]

on 09/17/09 | 2 Comments | Read More

Calling the Children Home

As a white boy in the Chicago suburbs who devoured every jazz biography I could get my hands on, my first encounter with the idea of “calling the children home” was a snippet from Nat Shapiro and ...[Read More]

on 09/15/09 | No Comments | Read More