In the New York Times recently, an article appeared on a familial rift that has taken place with the Wright family. The Wright family navigates the course of AUSTISM SPEAKS, "mega-charity dedicated to curing the dreaded neurological disorder that affects one of every 150 children in America today."
The rift was created when parents and child disagreed publically on the possible causes of Autism, i.e., environmental factors vs. genetics. I do not mean to sound insensitive to the families of Autistic children, however it is my humble opinion that Autism holds the key to much greater mysteries in the span of human kind.
How significant is the timing of this Autism crisis, in terms of human development? We've already replicated our brains into hardware and software, and today's children with Autism may well hold the secret to issues, concerns and problems that we haven't begun to conceive of, in response to the technological advances, shall I say, leaps, we have made in the past 20 years. I believe that Autism is a gift and grace and a karmic blessing. I believe that perhaps "curing" Autism is the wrong approach to a condition we do not know even about understand.
Yet surely it is a painful and difficult experience to parent a child with one of the myriad forms that autism takes. My deepest empathy is with those families whose lives center around the needs of their specifically gifted child and this is my point. Rather than viewing the condition as something to be eradicated, wouldn't it be a worthy pursuit to change our perception of autism into a blessing we do not fully understand or appreicate?
Thirty years ago Down Syndrome was of major relevance to our post-legal-abortion conundrum. In 2007, parents of some Down Syndrome children and adults are saying, no, don't terminate pregnancies with this particular genetic disorder. These people are very unique individuals who bring tremendous joy to the lives they touch. I'm just concerned that before trying to eradicate Autism, we first take plenty of time to understand it and it's possible positive affects on the human race. The Autistic are specially gifted, wired, if you will, in a totally unique way that may hold the answer to a problem they are actually here to resolve. All things in this life, when viewed as a blessing, are capable of transforming our world. Let us not move too quickly on finding the cure for a biological link whose magnitude we do not yet understand.
And this is my prayer for all the families living with, coping with, aching with, the challenge of parenting children with Autism.
May the long time sun
Shine upon you
All love surround you
And the pure light
within you
Guide your way on.
Respectfully,
Connie
P.S. the arrow next the title above will take you to the Autism Speaks website.
1 comment:
My friend sent me this link. She hadn't read it yet but figured since it had to do with autism, I would be interested. She later emailed me an apologized for sending it to me. This happens a lot. Well meaning friends and family send us anything and everything having to do with this subject. My son is 3 years old. Sweet, loving and vivacious and diagnosed with autism. My beautiful son has one word and thankfully that one word is Mama. he doesn't play with other children, doesn't play correctly with toys and really has no interest in anything. Autism is not my son, it will slowly take more of him from us unless we do everything we possibly can to get him back. If that means recovery or curing him then so be it. I will stop at nothing to help my son learn to learn and have the best life he can have. That's really what all parents do. Until you walk in my shoes as a mother who worries about making the right decisions for my son to make sure that happens, who worries if he will have friendships, do well in school, play sports or music or be an artist. And to think about autism as a blessing or a gift? you are sorely mistaken. Autism is a monster and autism is not going to take my son. He is not autism.
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