AS a Gift?

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Wow.

<-- Sits back, blinks twice

Really, wow. Two disparate and slightly acrimonious sides tied together like that. That was... inspiring. I'm going to study that section for a while.

Oh... I have NO acrimony towards Greentea.
She is one of my all time favourite people on WP.
We agree on a lot and sometimes we disagree, and i have bucket loads of respect for her and her brain. Just wish the world at large would.

She makes a bloody good interviewer, too. Eh, Greentea.

It's really easy to believe that people are giving this advice, but I think there are very few people that actually mean it that way. If they are, you are right: it is incredibly naive.

There is almost an irreconcilable viewpoint between optimists and pessimists. An optimist can't understand why a pessimist primarily sees the bad in a situation, while a pessimist can't understand why the optimist primarily sees the good. Both sides understand that reality can be really tough, but I don't think optimists are suggesting that just being positive will automatically make everything well. Things may not get better, but you have to hold out hope that they will. Where there is no hope, there is despair. Fortunately, no one is advocating despair.

If you have hope, however small, you have something that is positive to hold onto. Never giving up and holding onto hope is sometimes all we have, but it's absolutely crucial that we do so. There simply isn't another way, unless I am very much mistaken. And I believe that you and I agree on this point.

Yes.
What I was alluding to was the New Age movement that had its momentum in Australia with that ghastly exponent of all things "you create yourself" -Lousie Hay. Unfortunately, I see this kind of mentality permeating mainstream society in my country these days, and it maintains "level playing field" assumption about humanity and people's notion of "equality." Of course, we can debate the notion of equality and ethics forever and a day and we will never arrive at an objective reading of it.
Suffice to say, my view is there is no such thing as a level playing field. I am passionate about social justice issues and I do want to perpetuate hope, but i also understand from my own experiences as a human being - that even hope is sometimes a "luxury commodity."

peace for all.

I apologize, dear Millie, I should have been clearer in my reference. You made Greentea (who is upset with the negative aspects of elitism)* and FiddlerPianist (who is upset with Greentea about the Glider18 thread which he perceives as non-elitist and Greentea perceives as elitist)* both agree with YOU.

And thus, by the Transitive Property of Equality, they agreed with each other... over exactly the same post. And not just some inane post like "I like the color RED!"*, but something meaningful. It was quite a masterstroke.

(I know you were interviewed by Greentea, I saw your segment on Green-tea-vee. Unfortunately, I ran out of popcorn halfway through and had to leave. I may revisit that later.)

-- Vip

* I am making no judgments or statements about either of these viewpoints or the Glider18 thread.
**Not that there is anything wrong with the color red...

^ ah yes....this is called "the powers of intellectual analysis as applied to people and their ideas." I did know i was doing this.
it requires logic, systematic thinking, and a capacity to tease out the essence of exchanges and positions. It is good to do in writing. I do not think i am quite so adept at it face to face in a group! well...i know i am not. Too overwhelming...but in the written form it is a delight.


You see, in the end, we are all good people - just with differing slants on things.
I wish to find the common ground. it is a good thing to do - for all.

by the way, Vip, - and i shall thus forward refer to you in the snappy little shortened form, the tinfoil ears look mighty fine today. Cat in the sun......

Being an ape, gift or curse? All in how you deal with it, not being social, having no connection with other people, no matter how many times you chose to work in social group situations, it will always turn out the same.

We cannot change to fit in with them, they cannot change to accept us.

Having to deal with them, I am a sub contractor, not part of their world.

I am the mechanic that takes a sick engine, mistreated by some desk cow, and doubles the working horsepower, only to have them come back and claim I did something to the brakes, for it does not stop as well, they demand I also fix the brakes for free, I demand they leave.

I could not work at the next desk from these people, I would not go anywhere they do.

The whole story of fitting in is an impossible idea.

Those who did not get along with humans, prefered animals, became cowboys, spending spring to winter alone on the range. Others sit in fire watch towers not seeing anyone for months, there are guage watchers who have no human interaction, boiler operators who have not been seen in years, but are alive, for the boiler works and they cash the pay check.

Chosing a life not suitable for your person leads to suffering. No matter how many times you try, it will always be the same.

I make a great night watchman, I like night and being the only person in the building. In the third world I would be herding goats at the top of the mountain.

There are parts of the world where we fit, and places that our skills are in demand.

I am not going to change, they are not going to change, and dealing with them makes me sick.

Dealing with me makes them hostile. So I avoid them, and pick my ground to fight from. Life is a fight. I play to win.

I live in a whole world of my own, where I make the rules, and it works.

All that I have are my gifts, my special skills that keep me alive.

I reject change, cure, fitting in, as giving up my hands and fingers.

It had better be good, for it is all I will ever have.

Office Nancys pay cash in advance. The car stays here till you pay the bill.

Humans are a mass of lying thieving scum, get used to it.

One of me, six of them, I lose.

One of me, one of them, the car stays here till the bill is paid, and I did take out the battery. I have learned not to fix computers at people's homes, they will not pay, and threaten to call the police if I dont leave, all computers have to go back to the shop, and you have to come pay before I will return it. All ebay items are sent with delivery confirmation, for 10% of people will claim they never got it. With confirmation that dropped to 0.

No matter who and where, we have one set of skills, and playing them well or bad in the local game rules the outcome.

My gifts are all the sweeter because I fail at most of life.

^ Good to read, Inventor.

My name is Calamity Jane.
I like dogs.
I am an animal.

Yes, this is a good example of what I mean. Imagine if these professionals had approached these caged Autistics to tell them they were being "negative" for not considering their Autism a wonderful gift.

Ultimately, whether YOUR Autism is a gift or not, it's a very personal experience, determined by several different variables, of which Autism is only one. Anyone speaking for other Autistics is only doing harm to the self-esteem of the less fortunate among us.

Moreover, I've realized in the last few days that being Autistic is not as central to one's life quality as I thought before. It's very determining, of course, but other factors can be more determining, or as determining of how we, Autistic and all, end up faring in life.

In my personal case, the conjunction of having been scapegoated by the family for having Autistic traits, plus not having some natural talent that allowed me to become more independent from people approving of me / liking me in a later life, have proven to be as or more determinant of my tough life as the Autism itself.

Finally, it doesn't matter in the least who said what and in what thread. All threads are there for anyone interested in the true details. What matters is that I've learnt, from all that happened to me in the last month, that mine is a personal case with its particular circumstances, as is the case of each Autistic in the world.

Maybe the attempt to impose one's personal view of Autism on others is a product of the frustration we necessarily have when therapists to treat our own particular case are practically non-existent. (Stay tuned on millie's interview, because if it's Ok by millie, I'll interview her on this most exceptional experience she's been having lately on this very issue!! !)

Greentea, I do not understand the last paragraph.
I never mean to impose my view on others.
If I do, it may be a result of being a little gauche and clueless, but not out of malice or a desire to hurt.

millie, please let me clarify, I quoted you but after that I wasn't talking to you, in fact to no one in particular...

That is just a big, fat, smelly lie.

[/quote

oh - ok.
I am not travelling well at present and am hypersensitive to everything. thanks for clarifying, greentea.

I am happy to say that for me, AS is in many ways, a gift. I can interact socially well enough to pass off as no more a a little odd, and am considered by some as a 'genius' in the areas i am best in, but obviously this is not the case for all autistic people, and i am lucky to have AS only mildly.

That being said, i am only in high school now, so haven't experienced much of the 'real world' and haven't even had the chance yet to experience many of the troubles mentioned by others in this thread.

It is not a gift it makes it impossible to meet people I hate it

It may not matter to you, but it does matter to some. While it is true that all threads are there for anyone interested in the true details, you summarize the thread incorrectly and wrongly accuse glider18 of looking down on "negative" people. As I and others have said time and time again on that thread (and on this thread, for that matter), he never said that, and you misinterpreted his intent. I don't have a problem with you harboring negative feelings towards people those threads, but for goodness sake, stop trying to convince the rest of the world that these people who post about positive aspects of their lives look down on negative people! That is simply not true. I have offered to discuss this with you but you seem to have declined. Feel free to PM me if you like. I'm always open to chatting.


Absolutely. I couldn't agree more.