Moog wrote:
When I stop and think about it, I think it's surprising that we all seem to get on reasonably well together here.
Quoting from Jim Sinclair's 'AUTISM NETWORK INTERNATIONAL: THE DEVELOPMENT OF A COMMUNITY AND ITS CULTURE':
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"In February 1992 Donna Williams came to the U.S. to promote her first book, Nobody Nowhere. During her trip, she took a few days away from the book tour to visit with Kathy Lissner (now Kathy Grant) and me, two of the autistic people she had been corresponding with through the penpal list. I drove to St. Louis, Missouri, where Kathy lived, and we all stayed together in Kathy's apartment.
Donna's description of that visit can be found on pages 184-187 of her second book, Somebody Somewhere. We spent two or three days together, in a place where everyone was autistic, and where there were only three of us instead of a large crowd. We were all somewhat familiar with each other through our written correspondence; Kathy and I had also met briefly in person at a conference or two. The combination of these factors produced a new kind of autistic encounter that was vastly different from meeting other autistic people at NT conferences. Donna's description of the experience reads in part:
Despite thousands of miles, our 'our world' concepts, strategies, and experiences even came down to having created the same made-up words to describe them. Together we felt like a lost tribe. 'Normal' is to be in the company of one like one's self.
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We all had a sense of belonging, of being understood, of being normal . . . all the things we could not get from others in general. It was so sad to have to leave. 'Why can't we all live together?' we had each asked at some point or other. (p. 186)
My own recollection of this meeting is of feeling that, after a life spent among aliens, I had met someone who came from the same planet as me. We understood each other. At one point I overheard Donna talking on the phone to someone associated with her book tour. Apparently the caller had asked her something about how the visit was going. I heard Donna's answer: "We don't get a lot of cooking done, but we speak the same language."
It was an amazing and powerful experience to be able to communicate with someone in my own language. I had sometimes been able to establish meaningful communication with people before, but it always involved my having to learn the other person's language and do constant laborious translating. (Sinclair, 1988) Here, with people who shared my language, meaning flowed freely and easily".
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The complete article is here:
http://www.autreat.com/History_of_ANI.html
I appreciate this *so* much thank you! I was thinking, I can't *ever* get on with anyone, and especially not with others like me, and here is evidence to the contrary. You have just made my week