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…
I haven’t been posting photographs on the blog mostly because I forgot I sometimes post photographs on the blog. I post some regularly on Instagram and Facebook, anyway, so this is what Eve once called low-lying fruit. Really I was about to post on Facebook the sleeping woman whose photo I took on Sunday underneath Whitewater…
[This entry is the concluding post of a six-part series presenting my talk on autism delivered at the Autism and the Pursuit of Happiness conference at the University of North Carolina earlier this year. I invite you to read all the parts in the series — the entire talk. Please see the links at the bottom of…
[This entry is Part 5 of a six-part series presenting my talk on autism delivered at the Autism and the Pursuit of Happiness conference at the University of North Carolina earlier this year. I invite you to read all the parts in the series — the entire talk. Please see the links at the bottom of…
[Part 4 of a six-part series presenting my talk on autism delivered at the Autism and the Pursuit of Happiness conference at the University of North Carolina earlier this year. To read the other parts in the series, please see the links at the bottom of this post; the series starts with Part 1 here. Thank you!…
[This six-part series is adapted from a talk I gave at the Autism and the Pursuit of Happiness Conference at the University of North Carolina Asheville.] In this talk, I’m discussing value contrasts to consider—hopefully to think about deeply—when parenting an autistic child. These value contrasts also have relevance for medical, educational, and therapeutic professionals.…
[This six-part series is adapted from a talk I gave at the Autism and the Pursuit of Happiness Conference at the University of North Carolina Asheville.] My son Nicholas is 14 and autistic. I’ll tell you just a little bit about him. When Nicholas was one and a half he lost speech and was nonverbal…
I have been a poor blogger lately — “poor Ray,” a friend recently said — posting hardly at all. Today is when I begin to make it up to you. On my former static site, I had several complete interviews with mind/body/spirit teachers posted. They were heavily indexed, extremely prominent under any reasonable search architecture…
Memorial Day weekend 2015: I keep seeing signs in the community and posts in the social media community thanking those who died in military service to keep us free. And I keep wondering: Which was the last war fought that was actually necessary to preserve American freedom? Not all wars are, clearly. I’m not saying…
My son, Nicholas, was featured on the cover of the major western North Carolina weekly — the Mountain Xpress — a couple of weeks ago and the cover is, without question, The Best Cover Ever. Featuring a photograph by Tim Robison and art design by Megan Kirby, it’s something to frame for Nicholas’ lifetime. Also,…
