Tuesday, 20 April 2010
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Differences and Similarities
Trees in bloom fascinate me. Getting up-close photos of the blooms, seeing what the camera lens focuses on and what it blurs, is endlessly interesting. If I could hug the blooms, I would, if that makes sense. They evoke such emotion. I like to compare the blooms, the buds just starting all the way through to the spent blossoms; there's this huge array on the tree all at the same time.
There's an infinite diversity of people out there, all tantalizingly similar, and yet different, unique, and in varying stages of development, all at the same time. Endlessly fascinating. Our differences separate us, certainly, but I think, often it is our similarities that get even more in the way.
You'd think a simple thing like saying all people deserve respect and acceptance wouldn't serve as a wedge between people, but it does, and I don't think it's our differences that do that. Take for example the parents who are divided; we're all sharing similar experiences, and it is those similarities that end up dividing us: we face these similar life experiences in different ways, and one of the questions I entertain is how these shared experiences shape us. Why do some parents turn in one direction and other parents turn in another?
Another thing that gets me is that I really can't help but think that parents of kids on the spectrum ought to look at those adults on the spectrum who have overcome such hurdles and made such progress and connect with them, respect those accomplishments, and find such hope for their own children, but there are parents out there who see young adults like Ari who have done just that and they reject him and scorn him simply because he has overcome the challenges.
I don't think that diversity has to mean divisiveness. I hope that it doesn't. I hope that people can learn to push back against things other than each other. I hope that they can learn to look at the wonderful variety of humanity, in all its stages and find the good, find the beauty.
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About the Author
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- From: counterageofautism
- About Me: I am, according to some, "allegedly" an instructor. :-) I teach Psychology and English for Cisco College as an adjunct. If I'm making that up, I sure have gone to an extra lot of trouble to create a website, www.kwombles.com and a forum www.kwomblesclasses.proboards.com for my students, plus years of syllabi. :-) BA, English, history. MS Psychology. Graduate work in English, history, and education.
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Comments (1)
It is sad that a lot of parents of kids with autism hold people with High Functioning Autism or with Aspergers as hate figures. What is often overlooked is that a High Functioning adult - like Donna Williams - may not have been a high functioning child.
We have a right to express opinions about autism but we can only speak from our own experience of being autistic just as a parent of a child with autism can only speak from their experience of being a parent of a child with autism. I have to respect the parent's opinions as I have no experience of parenting an autistic child but on the experience of processing problems or overload one must be aware that their experience is that of an observer.