Archive for August, 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

Emergence

On the autism rights and neurodiversity blogs in July last year, fury erupted around the radio show host Michael Savage’s comments that autistic kids were brats. Savage said that autism was a “...[Read More]

on 08/31/09 | No Comments | Read More

Chills

I can't exactly remember when the chills first started. When I was in summer camp when five or six, I remember concentrating on placing my right hand over my left side to be able to say the Pledge of...[Read More]

on 08/28/09 | No Comments | Read More

They Call Me Quiet, But I’m A Riot

Ebulliently defiant on your car radio, Katie White—no matter what friendly guess or nickname she’s offered—is all sass and holding her ground: that’s not her name.  Performing live, though,...[Read More]

on 08/28/09 | No Comments | Read More

paradox of words

Of the seemingly infinite number of paradoxes that go with being human, there is the one where we find ourselves experiencing experience as an individual, a separate being, often alone while seeking t...[Read More]

on 08/28/09 | No Comments | Read More

Neurodiversity: A Pre-emptive Reply

Hello, there.  I’ve been expecting you.  While the focus here at Shift may be a good bit more broad than that found at, say, Ballastexistenz, aspie rhetor, Whose Planet Is It Anyway?, or Asperge...[Read More]

on 08/28/09 | No Comments | Read More

Tail Swallower

The symbol of our earliest known religions, back when goddesses ruled the world, was the serpent. The goddess had several familiars or manifestations. The serpent was unique. “The snake is life f...[Read More]

on 08/28/09 | No Comments | Read More

Notes on Five Spectrums

I. Intelligence Intelligence, as most everyone will cheerfully agree, is distributed unevenly; some people have more of it, some have less.  Rare, though, are those who will identify themselves as...[Read More]

on 08/28/09 | 1 Comment | Read More

Evolution and Succession of Obsessions

My father was a collector.  He maintained a stamp and coin collection.  He also had a large collection of tools, including the various gadgets and accoutrements targeted to achieving something usefu...[Read More]

on 08/28/09 | No Comments | Read More