creative forces

Blog # 88…December 2018

Christmas is coming with its usual cocktail of sentiments and behaviour: bittersweet memories of times and people long gone and sadness about the obvious gap between haves and haven’ts...over eating and drinking, forced conviviality and obligations. And yet, and yet, it’s also the season of office parties, family dinners, and other celebrations to brighten the darkness.  And it’s a reminder to communicate with people even if only an annual phone call or Christmas card.

I’ve been struck lately by how a number of features of our human condition are being explored in books, movies and on stages - addictions, depression, cancer, loneliness and alienation, all with their attendant difficulties in communication.  

Autism has had its fair share of attention with some sensitive looks at people who inhabit that world (usually on the end of the spectrum that used to be called Asbergers) hoping to promote some understanding of how they perceive and relate to the world and communicate with it and us.

Oliver Sacks introduced us to Temple Grandin in The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat…if you haven’t ever read this book, rush out immediately and get it.  Temple is a scientist, famous for developing humane ways of handling livestock.  She manages her life in an unorthodox but very effective way and was played by Claire Danes in a prize winning biopic.

I haven’t seen The Rain Man, but I did read The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time by Mark Haddon (then saw the play) and was highly amused by The Rosie Project by Australian writer Graeme Simsion. Both books successfully placed the reader in the position of a person with difficulties interpreting and responding to their surroundings and were executed with great humour, affection and respect.

People with autism may seem as if they’re not interested in connecting with others, but some of their apparently unsociable behavior may be when they’re trying hardest to engage. They may look as if they’re not paying attention because it’s difficult to concentrate on what someone’s saying while also making eye contact. 

Not expecting the usual social conventions and accepting behavior that may seem a bit bizarre and difficult to read can open us to the possibility that people may be trying in their own way to connect.  And that’s not only people on the autism spectrum…how about trying to meet people half way? Words I’m trying to live by in this season of good cheer.

A very happy holiday season  to you and yours dear readers, see you in 2019.