Autistic Language: Naming and Acknowledgment
This year my autistic son Nicholas started calling strangers by their names. But are they listening to him?
Stretched Presidencies
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…
7 Values to Live By: Autism Across Schools and Classrooms
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 been schoolteachers. There is…
On Snakes, Sticks, and Jedi Mind Tricks: An Interview with Byron Katie
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,…
A Little Sweet Bowling Vignette: So Old!
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…
The Four Chambers: Love, Life, Lust, and Loss, for Autistics Just Like Everyone Else
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:…
We Are Family: An Interview with Lisa Nichols (complete interview)
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…
Poem: Oldest River
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
The Answer to How Is Yes: Photos of My In-Between Son
My son Nicholas turns 15 at the end of September, which is just ridiculous. In some ways he retains the pure innocence and excitement of a little boy. In others he’s already taken on the weight of a grown man. I wish he hadn’t done so yet, even as he consciously, purposefully offers support and…
Women and Men and Autism: Love and Bathrooms
My son Nicholas, who is autistic, has never really differentiated between men and women. He’s not much of one for differentiation, anyway. So, for example, Mr., Miss, and Mrs. don’t come naturally to him. For most of his life, he has been as likely to get the honorific wrong as right. He was, and still…
