Reshaped by Autism
There are ways that the mayor analogy breaks down. At the first couple’s house, Martin took off his boots and crawled into their bed while I wasn’t looking. At other moments, he ran away from oncoming dogs…really small dogs. So he betrayed some of his odd tendencies. Overall, though, he was so friendly and eager to meet people. He broke down all the stereotypes of people on the spectrum.
With moments like these, it’s easy for people to meet Martin and have no idea that he’s got issues. That’s wonderful. But it’s also difficult. For instance, I was chatting with a colleague about a local private school. I told him that Martin couldn’t go there. He was really surprised. He couldn’t believe that the teachers there would have difficulty with Martin. “Well, he is autistic,” I said. Of course, my colleague knew this, but at the same time, there are many moments when Martin seems to blend in with everybody and who can blame him for forgetting that our family’s existence has been totally reshaped by autism.
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Wow. That’s amazing. I think it’s those moments that are the best to cling to.
My son will wave and smile at people at the store sometimes and other times if anyone even looks at him he will yell at them and fling himself around in the basket seat. This really gives me some hope though, thank you for this post!