I always loved this picture of my father. Dad always had this sense of wonder about nature. I suppose that was why he became a physicist. On the other hand, he wasn’t that comfortable with the real world, which is probably why he was a theoretical physicist. His real love was mathematics. After he retired […]
It was 1949. My parents’ first child, my older brother Michael, was born. I am my family’s archivist, so I still have the baby album my parents started. It begins hopefully enough. Black and white pictures, probably taken with Dad’s Hawkeye camera. After half a dozen pages of Mike in his crib and in his […]
I don’t exactly know why, but this phrase came into my head today: “Sweet Flypaper of Life”. Flypaper? Flypaper by itself is not that attractive – well, to people anyway. In fact, it can be downright revolting after it catches all those flies. It is even more horrifying if the proprietor hangs it too low […]
Sidra’s birthday Yesterday was my granddaughter’s 9th birthday, her last year of single digits, as I like to say to all 9-year olds. We ‘face-timed’ and her aunties, Nanna and I all crowded around the iPhone to see her show off her ‘adorable’ birthday presents. Siddy is always excited about her birthday. For months before, […]
I’m talking about artistic process, here. Maybe this is a mis-characterization of my ‘brother project’, but I don’t really think so. In art, like science, the artist/scientist is trying to understand something. I am trying to understand my autistic brother. Actions speak louder than words, but words [1] are necessary My mother always told me that […]
There is a huge gulf between the unrecognizable pictures of my brother in Mike Portrait to his portrait in ‘I Really Have to Dig Out My Journals’. Michael is crying in the latter post. This is such a human thing to do. I really shocked me at the time. I was rummaging through my Project […]
Autism, The Invisible Cord A Sibling’s Diary, by Barbara Cain Published by the American Psychological Association http://www.apa.org/pubs/magination I came across the author of this book while browsing through Twitter profiles. I compulsively look for tweeters with ‘autism’ in their profile description and hit the jackpot when I came upon Barbara Cain’s. Not only did she […]
Post as I go I am trying to sift through information available about biomedical interventions used in treating symptoms of autism. I realize that my approach is not scholarly or academic, but I would like to write a series of posts that chronicle my efforts to discover what biomedical intervention options are and how I […]
Back to the archives During the early 1990s, I visited my brother [1] quite a lot. At that time, I was getting reacquainted with him, learning about photography in order to capture moments with him, and learning more about the dynamics of how the other members of my family interacted. I would copy the day’s events […]
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 […]
