Teen Autism

I feel like whispering this.

Last night, as I was getting ready to post what I wrote yesterday about Nigel not being able to understand someone else’s viewpoint, he came into my office. He had a pencil drawing of himself with one arm outstretched, reaching upwards to a star that emanated beams of light. Here is what he said:

“This is a poster idea for a movie that I’m going to be in. It’s called The Movie Traveler. I am live-action, and I go into the land of Disney animated movies to be their guardian, because they’ve been searching for one for 40 years. And I help them. In the end I realize that other people are just as important as me. That without them, I am nothing. In order to save myself, I have to save both dimensions.”

I had him repeat those last few sentences so that I could get it all down. Maybe I’m reaching here. Maybe I’m reading too much into what he said. Maybe some lines are from a movie he recently watched. But I can’t help thinking that the fact that he said it is a step in the right direction. And “both dimensions”? To me that’s like the autistic mind and the non-autistic mind. He wants to “save” both. Affirm the importance of both. Maybe even try to understand both. Am I grasping?

It reminds me of the first few years after his diagnosis, when I grasped at therapies, books, treatments, supplements – anything I thought would help. And some of it did, immensely. Now, years later, when he takes these steps, I grasp at them. Because it seems like he’s reaching when he says these things. And if he is, I want to make sure I’m there, meeting him half-way. And if he’s not, I’ll be there anyway.

This entry (Permalink) was posted on Friday, December 12th, 2008 at 12:14 am and is filed under Development. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response , or trackback from your own site.