Wednesday, August 13, 2003

I think that sometimes folks get upset because others won't be pushed into saying that they agree with something that they infact do not.

Disagreeing is an inherent part of being human. because of social conditioning we have, for the most part, become afraid of conflict. As children we were either punished for daring to disobey or disagree with our elders. I think that at times that reflex still rears it's ugly head and causes us to either run or tell someone to stop the confrontation instead of facing it head on and resolving the underlying issues we have.



But I'm probably the last person that anyone wants to hear from in regards to conflict because of my history on debate boards at MOL and PS. Debate and conflict are both a part of healthy human interaction.

Tuesday, August 12, 2003

About a boy.....


My son Chase has a form of autism as I have mentioned in earlier entries. He seems to go with the flow for the most part. Maybe that is a bad way of explaining it. He seems to accept himself better than anyone does now or ever will. He knows how he 'is', he doesn't want to change his behavior. Why can't the world change thiers?

This sounds odd or cruel or what ever but sometimes I wish that Chase were deformed in someway or had an obvious birthdefect instead of one that is hidden among his neurons. He looks like anyother kid. It's when you talk to him that you notice that he is, well, different. He has very strong reactions to things that upset anyone else mildly. He has no "mild" reactions or emotions. Everything for him is as I like to say "full tilt boogie". And that is just his emotions. This doesn't include the fact the all of his senses react in that same extreme way. Noises that are merely greeted with a raised eyebrow and a 'what was that?' by anyone else are overwhelming to him. Smells can make him physically ill or keep him from participating in something or even getting dressed if his clothing smells 'off' to him.
Television is entrancing to him, he spends his time in a hyperfocus kind of mode when it is on. You can imagine how he reacts when it is time to transition into another activity and it involves turning off the T.V. But we do this and he is slowly learning to adjust and adapt.
We are forced as parents to purposly 'screw up' his day so he has experience dealing with minor instances of adversity. Doing this at home is comparitively easy compared with having to 'teach Chase' in public. I wish I had laser vision and could melt people at these times, lol. Anyway that is this installment of 'About a boy'.