Scanning I am in the process of scanning all my handwritten journals into my computer, an endeavor that my wife doesn’t understand. I tell her that once the journals are safely in the computer, I can upload them to the ‘cloud’, make backups, and never run the risk of losing the content; besides we’re moving […]
I think it was Woody Allen who said, “Time is nature’s way of preventing everything from happening at once.” He’s a very smart guy. Different phases Time is different for everyone, I think… or should I say perception of time is different. When I was growing up, it seemed that there were three phases to […]
Since yesterday’s wallow, I’ve taken stock. I started thinking about my need for attention and how it affects my likes and dislikes. I would guess that, like me, other siblings of autistic brothers or sisters also struggle with an unfulfilled need for attention. Today, I turn the question around. What do I attend to? Paradox […]
This picture is from a home movie. I took it from a TV set after the 8mm was transferred to videotape. The movie was made before 1961, since Mike went to Willowbrook about then. My brother Mike is autistic, low functioning and has never spoken. I am pushing Mike on the Irish Mail. The Irish […]
I’ve written many posts here about memory (Memory Revisited, Seeds of Memory, Storage Implies Retrieval, Memory). I’ve written even more about my brother Michael, who is autistic, low functioning and nonverbal. I believe that I am writing from an honest place, but I think the passage of time has influenced me. For example, I used […]
Empathy is the ability to vicariously feel what another person is experiencing, while sympathy is the ability to understand what another person is going through. The medical profession has many people who care deeply about their patients. I think this is a fair assumption, even though there may be some who are in the field […]
I Love Books I have books all over the house. When I get interested in something, I buy all the books I can find about the subject. Sometimes, when I read a book that references other books, I must get those books as well. For instance, I remember reading The Art of Hunger, a book […]
You heard from my mother a couple of days ago, and my father, yesterday, about what it was like having a very low functioning, autistic and nonverbal son, plus two other children. I described a bit of what it was like growing up in that environment (Disguise, The Doctor, Vacation, Patience). What happens years later? […]
Yesterday, Mom was my guest blogger. She said it was ok to post her e-mail to me in response to my post about memory and my childhood. She said how important it was for my younger brother and me to process the experience of growing up with our autistic, nonverbal and low-functioning brother, Michael. Dad […]
As I said in yesterday’s post, I am so happy that my mother follows my blog. She is new to WordPress and would have written a comment on yesterday’s post had she found the ‘comment’ button. I’m glad that she didn’t, because I want to present her commentary as a post in itself. Those who […]
