Autism Vox

Something To Make You Think

by Kristina Chew, PhD on March 2nd, 2007

Last Saturday, February 24th, I wrote my last post on Autismland, the blog I have been writing on since June of 2005 about my son Charlie. I had begun the blog with plans of writing the book about Charlie that I have been wanting to write for many years. I decided to stop writing Autismland because I need to focus on writing the book.

Once upon a time, the name of the book was going to be Autismland and I alternately referred to the book as “Charlie’s book.” But then—as happens in writing, and just in living—something else happened.

One thing that happened was that I was asked by Hsien-Hsien Lei to write “another autism blog,” namely Autism Vox. A year ago, we were still in the midst of finding the right school placement for Charlie, and I planned to make the focus of this blog education for autistic children.

As you may have noticed over the past few days, or weeks, or months, there have been a few other things to write about regarding autism: cause—-cure—-the autism “epidemic“—-vaccines—-why in the world there is so much autism in New Jersey—-little Katherine McCarron—-the genetics of autism—-disablity and mythology in the ancient world—-legislation for autism in New Jersey—-Sigourney Weaver as an autistic woman—-poetry—-the rhetoric of autism writing—-and a really good book.

Nonetheless, anything I have to say about autism all starts with Charlie.

For the past year, it has seemed to be the right thing to keep writing a daily account of Charlie’s and our life on Autismland. While I cannot guarantee that the end of our story will be happily ever after, things for Charlie have been settling into what appears to be a quite happy state. He likes school so much that he wakes up early for it. He is learning to read. We live with my in-laws, who are both disabled and who both have numerous medical issues and Charlie has been as peaceful easy-feeling as ever in learning how to live with other people, and especially with those whose needs far exceed his.

It seems somehow too fitting to me that, just when I brought Autismland—which I turned to every night for so many nights to try to tell about Charlie as honestly as I could—-to a close, I was awarded a Thinking Blogger Award as a blogger who makes other think. I am more than grateful to Dick of The Life That Chose Me for choosing me. I have been thinking about my five choices for blogs that make me think. Most of all, I have been contemplating the gentle irony of learning that Autismland helped another blogger to think—just after I announced that I am no longer writing on Autismland.

But I am writing here on Autism Vox. I am writing my book (title completely up in the air). And I even just wrote a post that struck a bit closer to the style of writing, to the voice, of Autismland. Recovery, cure: Charlie, whose childhood as been thoroughly unexpected to me and whose tenth birthday is fast approaching, has been doing just great.

And how to help him keep doing so will continue to inform what I write here. It is a goal, it is good work—the best work for the best reason—that gets me thinking.

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