Normalized

Life is amusing…..

particularly through the lens of autism. it is through this lens that you see yourself for who you are…or…..specifically. for what you are actually saying…..and…..how completely ridiculous you sound.

CJ. who has mild autism. at one stage couldn’t speak well at all. At 6 she was virtually speechless. we had to teach her the facial expressions for happy and sad. we reminded her that she had a right hand and needed to use it so the bowl didn’t fall off the table when she ate. she screamed when we turned a corner in the car. or. if the sun got in her eyes. or. if we washed her hair. and. when allowed to take a favourite toy to kindy…..she chose the piece of lego ‘grass’.

so…..

when CJ began to talk. we were ecstatic. elated. thrilled. overjoyed. and……eventually wondered where the off button was….

the world really is quite a straight forward place. and. we normals are often at fault for confusing it into complexity.

take for instance a few weeks back when we were about to eat dinner. CJ was really hungry. and. not having the social awareness the normals possess. she told us she needed to eat right now. she was hungry. in fact. she was ‘hungry enough to eat a dog’.

big daddy smiled. no no. that is not what you say. the saying isn’t ‘hungry enough to eat a dog’. you need to say you are ‘hungry enough to eat a horse’.

CJ looked at him rather bemused. she shook her head and smiled. no no big daddy……

i am not THAT hungry.

and so……we normals are often times a little confused on the facts. we can even confuse the story we are telling. it can mean something completely different than what we are trying to imply.

only recently CJ and i were traveling along the highway. and. big daddy was following in our other car. i happened to be talking to him on the mbl phone. and. as we are driving along. big daddy lets out a horrified cry. he informs me that he has been caught by a speed camera. i am visibly annoyed and CJ asks me what has happened. i proceed to tell her that daddy has been naughty and speeding (the fact that we have both been illegally talking on our mbl phones whilst driving is an aside). he has been caught by a speed camera. she suddenly becomes very very upset. she even looks frightened. she starts to cry. i am dumbfounded. i ask her. what on earth is the matter…..

and. i forget that her only frame of reference is the stationary speed camera along the highway. that black box. the menacing eye we slow down for. and. i forget that i am a normal…….

mummy. mummy. she says……..how will daddy get out?

CJ thinks that the speed camera has some how teleported. and. caught big daddy. and. that he is now trapped in the black box. tiny. alone. and. on the side of the highway. how on earth will we get him out…..

so. sometimes life is confusing. but. really rather simple. we normals need to take a leaf out of the autism book (i mean page) and mean what we say.

maybe then. we’ll get up on the right side of the bed…..of course. as long as it isn’t pressed against the wall. and then. we normals might just see things differently……see things the way they actually are.