A Signal of Distress at the Olympics?
August 11, 2008 by Kristina Chew, PhD
Filed under Health
Maybe you’ve heard about 9-year-old Lin Hao—-a survivor of the Sichuan earthquake who dug himself out of the rubble and then went back and got two of his classmates out—who appeared in the super-spectacular Opening Ceremony of the Oympics and about whom, as Grace Ibay at Kids Health Notes, writes, Chinese bloggers are talking about:
Not by accident, the tiny flag that Lin Hao is waving is upside down. It’s an international nautical distress signal. It’s a cry for help. And someone thought of sending that message out at the Opening Ceremony of the Beijing Olympics.
Just an accident, maybe not quite an incident?
What if cars bearing puzzle magnets chose to turn them upside down to indicate distress; a particularly bad day?
We don’t, by the way, have any sort of puzzle magnet on our car anymore, but we do have a decal for COSAC, which is New Jersey’s largest autism organization and whose symbol is a tree which I like, as it makes me think of growth and growing things, and growing boys.
And the decal’s right-side up.
I am not into the puzzle piece, myself, but I do like the sense of connection that I have when I see one. So, I went to Cafepress and found a different sticker that I like better, applied it to a magnet and added it to the car. I may just turn it upside down today. It’s been a rough one.
Is summer vacation over yet?!?!
We’ve got almost two weeks to go with the vacation….we’ll see!
On a more pertient noted as regards the Olympics, weight-lifter Melanie Roach, mother of an autistic son, finishes 6 out of 9 in her weightlifting even, as reported in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer.
your distress signal discussion made me think about my own idea one day. We were out in public somewhere and so often I feel like I have “Autismdar” and was pretty sure a little boy of a mom nearby was in fact Autistic. But how does one broach the subject without hurting someone, or even shocking them, for the sake of connection to another Autism parent? So, I thought it would be cool if someone created a ring or piece of jewelery that only Autism parents recognized. Not so much a “distress” signal, but more of, hey, it’s alright if you talk to me about Autism sign…..sorry, got off on a tangent!
We have a puzzle ribbon magnet, because we had an autistic friend give it to us. I came off the playground to find someone had turned it upside down today… perhaps I was receiving a secret message?
Bonnie, I have a bumper sticker on my car that says “Yes! You can ask me about Autism!” and people oblige all the time. I’m always glad to help folks who want to connect, talk, and are often diagnosis newbies who don’t know what to do next.