Working out autism
Most things you try to do are an attempt at succeeding at something. That something is a task, difficult or easy, just an objective to be fulfilled, an obstacle to be overcome. This rationale falls more clearly into focus when, as a layman, you become confronted with autism. A terrible disease whose afflicted are each a puzzle of their own. Maybe you’ve worked with children, and you think it’s the same, maybe you’ve worked with people with mental illness and so, you think it will be sort of the same, you’ll cope all the same. Autism is different, it baffles and frustrates you equally. As soon as you’ve progressed, as soon as you see yourself taking a couple of steps forward, you come to realize, very abruptly, that you have not moved, only your surroundings have changed. Figuring out the mental environment of the afflicted of autism becomes an interesting exercise. What normally works with other afflictions, the normal empathetic approach of putting yourself into the other’s shoes, is unlikely to have an effect in this situation, except maybe for the purpose of self-delusion. You will think you have understood the person and the situation. You seem to see around a certain surrounding, an impressionist interpretation of reality, the colors are a bit blurry, things flow into each other a bit, but are essentially intelligible to your eyes. So, you’re safe, right? It’s another person’s reality, a bit skewed and modified, but nothing you can’t handle. And then you get a sudden mood change, and you find yourself in a cubist interpretation. There are shapes, you notice a triangle, a square, some circles of varying sizes, but you need some time to start understanding again. Maybe you won’t get to understand. Maybe your only hope is to drag that person back to the “impressionist” reality. Maybe you end up pushing that person into some kind of post-modern hellhole of barren monochrome fields and solitary geometrics at moderate distances. Don’t worry, the likelihood of them coming back to “impressionism” is very probable, maybe after lunch, maybe in the morning. You probably won’t be able to heal/fix these so-called afflicted of their mercurial illness. But the struggle will continue, and so should you. You most likely won’t teach them a whole hell of a lot, but open your eyes, your ears, and your mind. You might find out your true quality, maybe not an excellence or proficiency of any particular kind, but a quality of firm vigilance and honest morality unlike the platitudes you most likely have been brought up with to interpret situations.
