What do spinning, roller coasters, New York City, the Golden Gate Bridge, stolen building stones, helicopters and trains under water, a broken lock to a construction site, an elevated train that ran out of track flew through the air landing on a person in the East River and a bitten cheek have in common? Answer: […]
I had so much fun since we arrived. Sidra is such a doll. She could hardly wait to do a stop-motion video with me. I was the cameraman and she was the director. Rebecca, her American Girl doll was the star. All it took was 150 snapshots, rudimentary editing and we had the whole of Rebecca’s […]
Faith is a complete trust in someone or something without requiring proof. Infants have complete trust by dint of the actions of their parents. No baby wonders whether he or she will be fed, under normal conditions. It just happens, no proof needed. Is being fed, in the world of a baby equivalent to the […]
Group home buddies When I visited my older brother, Michael, in his group home, I always enjoyed talking with some of his housemates. Of course, there were some who, like Mike, seemed to be beyond communication. One resident, J___, always seemed interested in what I was doing. He must have been profoundly deaf, as his […]
Imagine My older brother Michael is autistic, low functioning and nonverbal. By ‘low functioning’ I mean, he was diagnosed as ‘profoundly retarded’. They doctors gave him that diagnosis by determining that his IQ is 18. How they came up with ‘18’ is a mystery to me, but that is another story. I picture autistic aloneness […]
Part of my inspiration for posting this today is the blog post from Osiris Ramos (http://osirisramos.wordpress.com/): I Would Like to be Old (posted 8-23-12). A chat with Mom I started writing this post a few days ago after speaking with Mom. In fact the title of this post is a direct quote from her. Defeat […]
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 […]
Back-story This post is a back-story for my first visit to see my autistic brother Michael at the Brooklyn Developmental Center. It is something of a departure from what I usually write, as it concerns a relationship outside my immediate family of my two brothers and my parents. I was married to my first wife […]
I can cover that in 500 words, right? Um, I don’t think so, but I can tell you some of my thinking about what love is, a subject that has been on my mind for a very long time. I’d like to thank Maria (ishaiyafreshlysqueezed.wordpress.com) for inspiring this post. She mentioned to me in a […]
Happy Birthday Mom. You are the best! You were strong when we were growing up. Even in the era of the ‘refrigerator mother’, you said, “I never felt guilty about Michael and you shouldn’t either.” Other parents had children like Michael and you worked with them to start a support network – quite something in […]
