I have served on the organizing committee for Zipping for Autism for three years. The annual event raises money—now about $230,000 in seven years—for autism programs in North Carolina. It takes place in Asheville, N.C., on the first Sunday in June. My son, Nicholas, has been one of the top fundraisers each of the past two…
The Day of Mourning, an event remembering and honoring disabled people murdered by family members or caregivers, is held on March 1. Local vigils take place across the United States, as well as in Australia and Canada. In Asheville, North Carolina, vigils have been held at the University of North Carolina Asheville (UNCA) for the past two…
late dreams, autumn some flowers open and close day and night, blossom and fall spring and autumn. i do the same on these mountains. the sun rises i put on tie and smile it falls, i put on blanket and reading light and i sleep. october passes and dreams of memories stir foggy blurred chilled why scared now, hands…
We define autism, clinically and socially. It’s a construct, clustering people with certain human characteristics together. Here’s what autism is. You are autistic. This is what you are. On the positive side, at least sometimes, this clustering fosters autistic identity and community. But too often it also separates autistics out from non-autistics and diminishes respect…
Musings / Photography / Poetry
Round the Corner I never really had a crush on her. I always wanted to so pretty and friendly the smile quieting round the corner the testing casual mention of Christ one insincere laugh and I short in dress shoes talk too fast look too hard and what exactly do I do and what’s this…
One One of the best experiences of my life was four decades ago at summer camp, Camp Killooleet, in Hancock, Vermont. I went for eight weeks each summer for five years. It was a magical place and time and the favorite part of my childhood. I cherish that camp and those people and those years,…
My son Nicholas, autism specialist and psychologist Dr. Steve Love, and I were featured in this little news piece on WLOS talking about Julia, the new autistic character on Sesame Street. Click on the photo or the link below and have a look! http://bit.ly/autisticjulia You can read some of my top posts on autism here.
This year my autistic son Nicholas started calling strangers by their names. But are they listening to him?
I define a stretched presidency as lasting a minimum of eight years and including a presidency of the person elected plus potentially the consecutive presidency of her or his (it has always been his thus far) vice president. The original president wins re-election and/or the vice president of the president wins a consecutive term when the…
I had the chance to participate in Dr. Tiece Ruffin’s Education 379 course — focused on Special Education — at the University of North Carolina Asheville in December. Dr. Ruffin invited me to come to the last class of the semester. Some of the best and most impactful people I’ve known in my life have…
I am posting my March 2007 Byron Katie interview, newly edited to be completely true to the original conversation and transcript. In print in the magazine Pure Inspiration and in the material previously posted online, the interview’s edit involved a significant back and forth between me and Stephen Mitchell, Katie’s husband and a renowned classical scholar,…
I had a running commentary with a younger friend this past year about how very old I am. But for much longer it has been a running commentary with my son, Nicholas. Lifting up a box of books, back going out on our weekly hike, or just moving slowly on a weekday morning, I can…
I’ve been thinking a lot about joy lately, and especially about how the same experience or circumstance or day or week or year of your life, and perhaps the entirety of your life, can seem joyful or joyless depending on vision and context. All the things we all talk about, maybe too often, come into play:…
I absolutely love this interview. I love the voice Lisa Nichols has and shares here: so beautiful. I interviewed Lisa by phone in August 2004 just two hours after she first received a copy of Chicken Soup for the African American Soul — her first published book; I later got to meet and spend a…
Oldest River I was too happy to recognize when it happened to someone else too sad to realize when it happened to me until time passed which did not make me less sad but just slightly very very slightly more aware
