November 2009 - The Joy of Autism

H1N1 Vaccine Day

Nope. No qualms about it here. When it comes to life or death, or the risk thereof, it’s a no-brainer. Today we line up at our local clinic. Pack the backpack with food, toys, books, lollipops (wasn’t my last post about the dentist…oh...

Published Sun, Nov 08 2009 6:16 AM by Estée Klar

Filed under: Autism and Vaccines

This Lovely Life

There are some things that silence me for a few moments. The death of a child, the poignant line. Vicki Forman’s This Lovely Life: A Memoir of Premature Motherhood does both. About the premature birth of her twins, the death of one child and the...

Published Tue, Nov 24 2009 5:51 AM by Estée Klar

Filed under: Critical Disability Studies, Writing

The Fishbone

“We all take for granted the little miracles,” she said. She said it after I pulled out the fishbone from my throat – about an inch long. I did it outside, after they said the meal was on the house, choking next to the kitchen asking for help quietly...

Published Fri, Nov 13 2009 5:49 AM by Estée Klar

Filed under: My Creative Non Fiction

Adam’s Delicate Line

As a curator of art I have a special interest in “self-taught” art, otherwise known as “Outsider Art” or “Naive Art” — these latter terms I find unnecessary and, noting my bias, degrading as terms to describe...

Published Thu, Nov 19 2009 9:25 AM by Estée Klar

Filed under: Adam, Autism and Learning, Art, Autism and Intelligence, communication

Writing About Illness

‘Tis the season of H1N1 and I am reminded of how many writers write about illness. I began The Joy of Autism blog in 2005 whilst suffering from pneumonia. I devoured the prose and poetry of Audre Lourde when I was diagnosed with cancer. Here’s...

Published Fri, Nov 13 2009 9:36 AM by Estée Klar

Filed under: Writing

The Fight of Our Lives

Picking up on Virginia’s Woolf’s quote I picked yesterday in “Writing About Illness” quite intentionally, I consider all some of the historical and contemporary writings about illness and disability. Michael J. Fox talks about...

Published Sat, Nov 14 2009 7:52 AM by Estée Klar

Filed under: Writing, Acceptance, To Get To The Other Side

A Mother’s Writer’s Block

There are days I’m not sure how to write. This ache of inertia stops me short — what do I tell, what do I leave out? It’s a problem, actually, of writing about oneself; a problem that many writers experience when writing about life. The mother always...

Published Mon, Nov 16 2009 11:29 AM by Estée Klar

Filed under: Writing, To Get To The Other Side

How did I manage that?

How did I manage it, I think as I sit in an assessment for Adam today for a new AAC device. I want him to be eligible for government funding for it. I arrive at his school tired and disheveled in my leggings and baggy sweater that I rushed to put on,...

Published Mon, Nov 23 2009 11:43 AM by Estée Klar

Filed under: Single Parenthood, To Get To The Other Side

Barb, Tim and Annie Farlow and the quest for justice

What does the story of a three-month-old baby with Trisomy 13 and her death have to do with the rights of all disabled individuals? It’s a question that Barb Farlow and her husband Tim have raised for the past several years, and today, the loss...

Published Mon, Nov 30 2009 6:40 PM by Estée Klar

Filed under: Critical Disability Studies, Ethics, Discrimination

My typewriter

A year-and-a-half ago, I had an obsession with typewriters. I bought them first for Adam, thinking that he would find the one with the right feel and sound as he was learning his keyboard. Adam’s father purchased a wonderful old Remington for me...

Published Fri, Nov 06 2009 1:56 PM by Estée Klar

Filed under: Writing

Blind, Autistic Woman Rakes Leaves To Pay For Dental Work.

Heather Stone collects leaves earlier this week at a home where she and some volunteers raked leaves to help Stone raise money to have dental work done. Stone has raised $41 so far toward a $12,000 visit. When I read this story I thought of Adam. How...

Published Fri, Nov 06 2009 4:46 PM by Estée Klar

Filed under: Uncategorized

The Wild Boy

We all love to read to our children. I have my own favorites and Adam has his. He will sit calmly in my arms reading The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein. His favorite are The Mr. Small and Mr. Giggles books. Adam can begin to tell me his favorite parts...

Published Wed, Nov 18 2009 9:50 AM by Estée Klar

Filed under: Children's Literature

Slipping Through My Fingers All The Time

“Barely awake at the breakfast table, I let precious time go by…” Hovering over the small stainless frying pan I cook his eggs, sunny side up. He always likes them sunny side up. I think it started when I started making them into “Baby...

Published Sun, Nov 15 2009 7:58 AM by Estée Klar

Filed under: Development, Single Parenthood, Joy

Lorraine Kerwood: “I didn’t perceive myself intelligent in any way”

Lorraine came to me by way of my own website, which attests to the power of the Internet in making connections these days. Reviewing her own work with recycling computers, and how she came to regard herself by way of other people’s view of her,...

Published Tue, Nov 24 2009 6:47 PM by Estée Klar

Filed under: Autism and Intelligence, Contributions to Society, Obsessions

Finding Me in Paris

After listening to La Vie En Rose, I booked a last-minute ticket to Paris. I leave next week to meet my girlfriend, Leda, who I became friends with while studying in Europe fifteen years ago. Leda is a pianist and her father is a well-known composer from...

Published Wed, Nov 25 2009 9:11 AM by Estée Klar