Dad died 7 years ago yesterday (November 30 by the lunar calendar). Thoughts of him have been in the back of my mind all month. Although I wasn’t conscious of it, this may have prompted me to read A Mathematician’s Apology by G.H Hardy, a book that had been sitting on my shelf for quite […]
My brother Mike is 65 today (11-11-14). He is my older brother, autistic, very low functioning, and has never said a word in his whole life. I began this blog to relate my experiences in trying to get to know him – a daunting task, when you consider I never knew if he knew who […]
I recently posted about aging (Diminishment) and disability (Comfort Zone). Some reduction of faculties are gradual and can be tolerated I imagine, much as one gets used to the shock of jumping into a pool of cold water. Although frightening, this aspect of the human condition is often a topic that people in older age groups can […]
Today’s Watercolor Experiment: Once again, I return to the photographs of our last visit to see Mike at his geriatric group home, in November 2013. Mike is my older brother who is autistic, low functioning and nonverbal. My mother and younger brother also came along. On the surface, I was not expecting any recognition from […]
It is father’s day as I write this post. I had a call from one daughter and a text from the other. I can’t tell you how much that means to me, especially since I have no children of my own. I’ve always been sensitive about being a step father (one of those identity-shifty things, […]
I love writing my blog. I look forward to learning something new every day to write about or, if not new, a continuation of what I began the day before, or returning to a line of thought from some months back. Now and then it is worthwhile recapping the arc of the blog so that […]
Reexamining old photos I’ve been looking through my old photos with the idea of finding expressive and meaningful hand gestures. The photo below is a frame from one of the home movies that my father must have taken. We were on vacation in the late 1950s or early 1960s. I’m pretty sure of the date […]
Holding hands is one way of showing intimacy… assuming the hands belong to different people. Holding one’s own hand can have other meanings; I don’t think that intimacy is one of them, however. That could be a good blog post, but not what I had in mind for today. My older brother Mike is autistic, […]
Mike looked really old. That was what struck me the most. He also had a low frequency tremor. He also had only one useable eye. the other one was all cataracted over. Portrait of three brothers No need for Photoshop. My two brothers and I are all in the same place at the same time, […]
Aside from seeing Mom on my side trip to New Jersey, the highlight will occur tomorrow (actually today, since I write my posts the night before). It is the day that I get to see Michael, my older brother. Mike is autistic, low functioning and nonverbal. I haven’t seen him since they moved him to […]
