And on the red carpet tonight we have…

Seventh Voice, whose son has autism and who uses her (? sorry if I have it wrong) blog to advocate for better treatment options for people who have autism, has nominated me for the Sunshine Award.  I already have the award but hey, do billionaires say, I’ve already GOT enough money, give it to Joe Bloggs instead? (well, yeah, sometimes). My favourite Seventh Voice post is this one, where she asks people to submit a poem that she can read to her son – and my favourite poem is this one.

All The Clocks Are Broken

All the clocks are broken,

Least, near as I can tell,

Oh sure, they look like they’re okay

But they’re not working well.

For instance, they begin to slow

Just ‘fore each special day

(Like Christmas, or the end of school,

Or near my next birthday).

A gear gets stuck, the clock hands crawl –

Ten minutes lasts an hour . . .

I’m telling you, as far as Time,

The clocks have too much power!

Like when you need some extra ticks

To take a test, or sleep –

Those hands fly round their circled field

Like dogs loosed from their keep.

I know it’s a conspiracy,

A mean and nasty plot,

To shorten or to lengthen

All the days and hours I’ve got.

It’s not just me. There’s others know

(Some grownups and some kids);

That tactics of time monitors

Have left us on the skids.

Like, when she visits every year

My Gramma says to me,

“My gosh, the time has sure flown by,

You’re taller than a tree!”

And Dad, when Mom and he are late

To some bigwig affair

Complains, “She sets her clock for turtle time,

We’ll never make it there!”

The problem is, near as I know,

There is no way to trace

The slowings and the goings

On any timepiece face.

When one speeds up they all agree,

There’s no clockwork dissent.

When one slows nearly to a stop

They concur and they consent.

So here we are, the lot of us

At the mercy of these fiends

That speed and slow at their cruel whim,

And dangle us like beads.

We could, of course, rebel and fight –

Resist the time regime;

Not worry ‘bout how long or when,

But sit back, quite serene.

Give Time its place and move along

As Life will lead us through;

And all the clocks, through ticks and tocks,

Will give us time that’s true.

The reality, it’s sad to say,

Is we won’t change one bit,

But continue on the status quo

And here, in Time, we’ll sit.

by L. Stewart Marsden, on Writing Odds n Ends

In turn can I pass the Sunshine Award on to:

Dede Puppets, who makes these incredibly cute puppets which she now successfully sells – well, see for yourself. And Dede, you’re next on the Red Carpet, ok?

Compounded Modifications, for a lovely and understanding piece of prose about the autistic universe.

Denubedexuberance, for the immortal line “I have recently spent time with my family, every one of which may be considered “neurotypical”. But the interesting fact of the situation is that I did not find any difficulty in interacting with them. Indeed, the only complaint that I may have, and perhaps the complaint that caused me to withdraw, was that they were all quite boring.”  Maybe aspergers isn’t that uncommon after all.

Hmm. I wish I’d thought of that name for my blog before she did, it perfectly encapsulates my approach to life.  Anyway her little boy is aspergers and I just love this quote “Yep – that’s my boy! Sees the world differently. And that can be a good thing.” And so it can, with bells on!!

Stimming with Benjamin. I love this post about the joy of just having a chat with your little boy – communication being a big difficulty on the autism spectrum.

My own Mr F can be a little bit aspergerish at times in his intense focus on subjects that interest him and obliviousness to the social niceties.  It’s a boy thing (but not always, of course).  At the other end of the autism spectrum are Captain Savage’s two boys, who are very dear to him but can’t speak.  And don’t take this the wrong way, but you know, neither can our dogs or horses or cats, and yet we love them and we communicate through mediums each of us can understand – a soft voice, a stroke, a gesture. Speech is a thing most humans can do, it’s not a pre-requisite for being human, or for being loved, or for living a happy life with others.  Maybe people on the autism spectrum can teach us about adjusting our perspective, there’s more than one way to see the universe.