A priest, a rabbi, and a nonverbal autistic person walk into a party.
The priest says, "Wow, there's a lot of people here."
The rabbi says, "I've been waiting all week for this!"
The autistic says..... nothing.
Relax, it's just a joke obviously. None of the characters mentioned would go to a party.
On that note, I would like to introduce my new blog.
Introducing a new blog is extremely awkward territory, because you are trying to sell something that hasn't even been created yet. It's difficult to decide what type of voice you are going to use (do I refer to myself, or the blog? Do I verbalize the personification of the text as if it is an entity?). You see, I know from experience that blogging is a fluid experiment that evolves and takes shape over time as you create more and more content. Those first few - maybe ten - posts can be a real bitch, however. The temptation to go back after six months and delete the cringe-worthy material that no longer fits is a true struggle. In an attempt to avoid that future version of myself, I will just lay out what I have as the vision for this blog.
Ultimately, I want to bridge the gap between the neurotypical and neurodiverse. There is a whole movement taking place right now that stands against oppression of the autism community, but it is so much bigger than that. As everyone knows. autism is a spectrum; more than that, neurology itself is a spectrum. The nuances of mental health as a spectrum invoke the fallacies of how our society deals with individuals who are "different." The outliers who are autistic, ADHD, schizophrenic, OCD, BPD and so forth want the stigmas removed. Those of us on the spectrum want to be accepted and deemed worthy. I, personally, want to see marriages between neurotypicals and autistics thrive. I want to see neurotypical parents defending their autistic children instead of apologizing for them. I want to see autistic people reach adulthood without saying, "I have been ostracized my entire life." More than anything, I want a realistic and relatable example of how these differences present in every day situations. My mission is to give people a different mental picture than hand flapping when they hear the word autism.
I can't think of any better place to begin this mission than within my family. We truly run the gamut of spectrum diagnosis, and represent an incredibly diverse sample of neurological intersectionality. As a team, we have so much to offer the world in terms of acceptance and inclusivity. We are real, transparent, and for the most part, relatable.
As a disclaimer, what we have to say is not meant to speak on behalf of everyone. Some things in this blog will, inevitably, be too real or too honest for someone's taste. Situations and conversations will be mentioned or referenced and it won't always make the people involved look good. What we have to say might offend and it might hurt some feelings. It might trigger some, it might awaken some. The point here is not to make everyone comfortable, but to speak our truth.
I aspire to perpetuate this endeavor as a collaborative project; I will be enlisting the efforts of the whole family for a wider perspective as well as sharing the burden of coding and graphics (with my daughter, because she is the only person I trust with that responsibility). I hope that in the future, I can host some guest content that will support our mission statement. If you have questions you'd like to see answered, topics you would like to discuss, or if you would like to be involved in contributing here, please feel free to reach out. In the mean time, go make some phone calls or make small talk or whatever it is neurotypical people do.
