your dreams will be reduced down to breathing, and you will be grateful
Posted in featured, Society
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 …
...[Read More]
Julia Bascom on 03/5/12 | 2 Comments | Read More
Re-education: Why do we insist on speech therapy for “high-functioning” kids?
When my son was diagnosed with Autism, the assessment team gave us a detailed report of all of his “deficits” — mostly his communication style. His eye contact was not typical. His speech was [Read More]
Sarah Schneider on 10/14/10 | 8 Comments | Read More
Identity Politics and Neurodiversity
We’ve had some discussion here on Shift Journal recently about the extent to which characters and behaviors should be described as autistic. Mark Stairwalt speculates that when people feel unco[Read More]
Gwen McKay on 10/13/10 | 10 Comments | Read More
Grieving the Dream and Living What Is
When I first began delving into the words written by parents of autistic children, I found myself troubled by phrases like “the heartbreak of an autism diagnosis.” At the time, I was just beginni[Read More]
Rachel Cohen-Rottenberg on 10/12/10 | 2 Comments | Read More
A Hair-Dryer Kid in a Toaster-Brained World
Okay, so: the presentation.
First, I should tell you that we orchestrated it with the stealth of CIA operatives. We didn’t want Bud to see me in the building, because we knew that my presence woul[Read More]
Guest on 10/11/10 | No Comments | Read More
A Year Ago at Shift Journal
For all its charms, the weblog platform does also bury older content for no better reason than that newer material has come along. While we all like to feel we’re improving, whether you are writing[Read More]
Mark Stairwalt on 10/11/10 | No Comments | Read More
Ari Ne’eman, Behavior-Modding the Lovaasians
The showbiz maxim “There’s no such thing as bad publicity” is one that was nicely illustrated less than a month ago at MTV’s Video Music Awards, when Taylor Swift gave over her entire spotligh[Read More]
Mark Stairwalt on 10/8/10 | 4 Comments | Read More
Katara & Holly
Sometimes, when life gets difficult it takes focusing on the simplest pleasures to help you take a step back and see progress. Really, think about that word for a moment. Progress. We live our live[Read More]
Stephanie Allen Crist on 10/7/10 | No Comments | Read More
The Paradox of Changing the World with Words
Words and how we use them to relate to the world can be, as Andrew Lehman discussed in a post last year, somewhat paradoxical. Although we use words to describe and frame our relationship to our surr[Read More]
Gwen McKay on 10/6/10 | 5 Comments | Read More
How I Feel About Those Who Want a Cure
Please be warned: If you’re hoping for an anti-curebie tirade, you won’t find it in this post. Likewise, if you’re hoping I’ll say that autism is a disease that must be eradicated, you also [Read More]
Rachel Cohen-Rottenberg on 10/5/10 | 2 Comments | Read More
Circle of Friends
It was incredible.
I met with Bud’s class today at lunchtime. I was expecting it to go well. I was actually expecting it to be great. But, I’m telling you: IT. WAS. INCREDIBLE.
I can’t eve[Read More]
Guest on 10/4/10 | No Comments | Read More
A Year Ago at Shift Journal
For all its charms, the weblog platform does also bury older content for no better reason than that newer material has come along. While we all like to feel we’re improving, whether you are writing[Read More]
Mark Stairwalt on 10/4/10 | No Comments | Read More
Versatile Blogger Award (and retrospective nod to Andrew Lehman)
It’s hard to imagine anyone I’d rather have Shift Journal be tagged by for the Versatile Blogger Award than the grand old codger of autism blogging, early friend of the site, and man who’s seen [Read More]
Mark Stairwalt on 10/3/10 | 3 Comments | Read More
Should We Label Characters?
I recently watched A Wrinkle in Time, a movie based on Madeleine L’Engle’s book of the same name. Watching this movie brought back memories of my childhood, when I fell in love with L’Engle’s [Read More]
Stephanie Allen Crist on 10/1/10 | 9 Comments | Read More
Reflections on Being Jewish and Autistic: Different Minorities, Same Critique
For almost two years now, I’ve become increasingly aware of how other people regard autistics. As you all know, the news is not altogether good. As I’ve waded my way through all manner of error [Read More]
Rachel Cohen-Rottenberg on 09/30/10 | 5 Comments | Read More
Stand Your Ground
If I may be forgiven a bit of motherly bragging, I’m quite proud of the mature way my daughter handled a recent social situation. As I mentioned in a previous post, she is a college freshman st[Read More]
Gwen McKay on 09/29/10 | 3 Comments | Read More
Wearing Masks, or, Thoughts on Foxes
Last October I wrote a short little blurb on passing, using the mythos of the kitsune as an allegory. Mark e-mailed me back in April about his newest essay on the Uncanny Valley. Long e-mail now sho[Read More]
Guest on 09/28/10 | No Comments | Read More
Opportunity, Possibility, and Community
I’ve been given an incredible opportunity. It’s been two weeks since the opportunity was presented to me, and I’m still reeling from the possibilities it holds.
I’ve already told you that Bud[Read More]
Guest on 09/27/10 | No Comments | Read More
A Year Ago at Shift Journal
For all its charms, the weblog platform does also bury older content for no better reason than that newer material has come along. While we all like to feel we’re improving, whether you are writing[Read More]
Mark Stairwalt on 09/27/10 | 2 Comments | Read More
“Autism” the Word, as Glimpsed in the Wild
The autism wars will likely continue, I predict, for some time after the larger culture has rendered its own decision and moved on. Or so has run my thinking, anyway, since I stumbled onto Mom-NOS’[Read More]
Mark Stairwalt on 09/23/10 | 7 Comments | Read More
Autism as Adverb
As I’ve mentioned, I’m currently reading Lev Grossman’s latest book, The Magicians. I’m bringing it up again because in the last couple of chapters, I’ve twice come upon[Read More]
Guest on 09/23/10 | 5 Comments | Read More
The Illusion of Typicality
The cypress trees of Louisiana’s bayous (to continue Shift Journal’s venerable landscape metaphor tradition) are very well adapted to their natural habitat. They can get along just fine with most[Read More]
Gwen McKay on 09/22/10 | 3 Comments | Read More
A Year Ago at Shift Journal
For all its charms, the weblog platform does also bury older content for no better reason than that newer material has come along. While we all like to feel we’re improving, whether you are writing[Read More]
Mark Stairwalt on 09/20/10 | No Comments | Read More
The Unbroken Spectrum: The Shared Closet
Inveterate list maker Lili Marlene has carved out another instructive subset from her still growing referenced list of now “… 174 famous or important people diagnosed with an autism spectrum [Read More]
Mark Stairwalt on 09/17/10 | 1 Comment | Read More
Choosing How We View the World and Our Place In It
Here, in West Texas, the heat’s still on. It’s fair week here, so we’ve had the typical showers that everyone associates with fair week. We are, believe it or not, into the fourth week of the [Read More]
KWombles on 09/16/10 | No Comments | Read More
Prickly Ponderings
Although the song “America the Beautiful” praises amber waves of grain, when I was a little girl I wasn’t much impressed by that image and would have preferred a field of blooming thistles inste[Read More]
Gwen McKay on 09/15/10 | 3 Comments | Read More
Why We Fear Passion
We long to feel. This is the irony of a child like mine who feels too much, in a world that is losing its ability to feel at all. Have you noticed that most children have an inborn passion? Even if [Read More]
Guest on 09/14/10 | 1 Comment | Read More
A Year Ago at Shift Journal
For all its charms, the weblog platform does also bury older content for no better reason than that newer material has come along. While we all like to feel we’re improving, whether you are writing[Read More]
Mark Stairwalt on 09/13/10 | No Comments | Read More
What’s Fair Is Fair
As those of her generation are able to do, my mother the other day—with just the slightest stern shake of her head—remarked at “How much has changed,” since I was a child, and even more since [Read More]
Mark Stairwalt on 09/10/10 | No Comments | Read More
Horse-Assisted Therapy and Eye Contact
In the past couple of months, I’ve begun horse-assisted therapy at Miracles in Motion in Keene, NH. I decided to begin the work after reading about the story of Jaycee Lee Dugard, the California w[Read More]
Rachel Cohen-Rottenberg on 09/9/10 | No Comments | Read More
On the Border
My daughter, the newly minted freshman, came home from college over Labor Day weekend. The first thing she did when she got back here Friday evening was to go out to the high school football game wit[Read More]
Gwen McKay on 09/8/10 | No Comments | Read More
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