POST 200: RENEWING MY COMMITMENT TO THE PROCESS OF CURE
I’ve had to do a lot of traveling for my employer lately. Frankly, it sucks. I really don’t enjoy long flights, bad hotel beds, and driving rental cars in unfamiliar places. Mostly, I don’t like being away from home and family.
The only positive thing about being away from home is that it gives an opportunity for self-reflection. There have been a few things going on in my life that are prompting me to take a hard look at myself. And I can’t say that I like everything that I see. I’ve got some things to work on.
But there are things I’m doing right. I certainly try to do right by my children. I love all three, and I can’t say that any of them is more important to me than the others. That being said, though, there can be no denying that the Little Rankster probably takes up a lot more of my thoughts and efforts than do the older two.
In looking at my life of late, one thing has come through with amazing clarity: how much the Little Rankster means to me, and just how much richer my life is because he’s a part of it. I simply cannot imagine a life without him. And that’s why I feel I need to do everything I can to alleviate the negative aspects of the ASD he has.
I used to have on-line chats with friends from the neurodiversity movement. Eventually, those discussions fell by the wayside. Most of them could never quite grasp the fact that I absolutely accept my son the way he is. What I do not accept is the inevitability of obstacles that keep him from using the gifts that are inside of him.
The only positive thing about being away from home is that it gives an opportunity for self-reflection. There have been a few things going on in my life that are prompting me to take a hard look at myself. And I can’t say that I like everything that I see. I’ve got some things to work on.
But there are things I’m doing right. I certainly try to do right by my children. I love all three, and I can’t say that any of them is more important to me than the others. That being said, though, there can be no denying that the Little Rankster probably takes up a lot more of my thoughts and efforts than do the older two.
In looking at my life of late, one thing has come through with amazing clarity: how much the Little Rankster means to me, and just how much richer my life is because he’s a part of it. I simply cannot imagine a life without him. And that’s why I feel I need to do everything I can to alleviate the negative aspects of the ASD he has.
I used to have on-line chats with friends from the neurodiversity movement. Eventually, those discussions fell by the wayside. Most of them could never quite grasp the fact that I absolutely accept my son the way he is. What I do not accept is the inevitability of obstacles that keep him from using the gifts that are inside of him.
posted by Wade Rankin at 8/28/2008 08:34:00 PM
7 Comments:
"Most of them could never quite grasp the fact that I absolutely accept my son the way he is. What I do not accept is the inevitability of obstacles that keep him from using the gifts that are inside of him."
EXACTLY, and ditto....
Keep doing what you're doing, Wade. Keep what works, toss out what doesn't (and that goes for BOTH treatments and relationships).
"We don't need no stinkin' neurodiversity"
-Jonathan Mitchell (autism's gadfly)
www.autismgadfly.blogspot.com
My youngest is 21 now, but otherwise I see a lot of similarity between our circumstances.
Good luck to you.
Ed
Wade,
I hope that someday we'll have the opportunity to meet in person, I look forward to a chance to sit down with you have and have an honest-to-god conversation. Our opinions on some things autism related have diverged a bit since we first 'met' online, but in our feeling about our kids - all of our kids - I think we are in complete agreement.
No matter what we may be doing on the side to advocate our personal opinion on this matter or that, our kids deserve our full attention, our full love, and our full dreams for their future. Autistic or not. That is what too many autism parents seem to forget.
Brett, my friend,
All I can say is A-Freakin'-Men!
By the way, congrats on post #200!!
We do the best we can under the circumstances. I too get lots of criticism about my fight to get my son to a point when he can function. You just keep doing what you are doing and ignore the negative comments.
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