It Depends On Your Perspective
August 2, 2007 by Kristina Chew, PhD
Filed under Health
This is earth as a mere pale blue dot, photographed from 4 billion miles away, by Voyager 1 on June 6, 1990.
What is “normal” and what is not? When is the world turned upside down?
It all does depend on where your feet are standing…….
One thing is for sure for me: Life with autism, with my son Charlie, is not like this at all. It may not be “heaven on earth” but it is a garden or at least a beach of earthly delights many provided by my lovely boy.
While in one of our parents’ therapy sessions, me and my husband were asked to draw a picture of what we thing our life with our autistic son is like. My husband drew a picture of a hill with an up-going road, where me, him and our son were walking holding each other’s hand. The therapist said this picture was very close to reality. On the other hand, my picture, which was a vase with flowers in it, was considered to be extremely optimistic and flattering of the situation. I explained that no matter what, my child is still my child and gives me many moments of happines, love and pleasure throughout the day. I prefer to stick to this moments instead of the bad ones. This is not ‘healthy’ I was said…
I hope you found a better therapist, Athina…
The image of the three of us—Jim, Charlie, and me on a road is one I’ve used often. I used to think it was all uphill and rocky and that I’d have to cling to Charlie’s hands—more and more, he runs ahead and grins back at us, and stops when we ask. And we have some time to smell the flowers.