Thursday, April 9, 2009

Blue Cars

My daughter Robin thinks I see Aspies everywhere. Well she used to. And maybe I do. I've gotten really good at spotting one of us. I often have to remind parents who tell me they think their kid has Aspergers that it is not a death sentence. I have to remind myself that sometimes. And just tonight I had to tell my son that other kids had problems he didn't have. That yes I understood, his anguish every time he'd cry and ask why or wished he wasn't "like this". But even when I didn't feel like it myself, I would try ever so hard to remind him that he had somethings that only our Aspergers could give us. Especially since we had each other to turn to. (4 of the 6 people in my little family are affected by Aspergers or some other form of developmental condition similar to Aspergers.)

I've just gotten an Ipod Touch. I really love it. Now I understand the attraction to plain IPods. The music sounds really great. So I have been spending a lot of time at the App store and adding my eclectic style of music to i Tunes to sync with my touch.

During this process, I listened to many of my favorites again. It's been a while. As I said my tastes are rather eclectic, ranging from Alice Cooper's Schools Out to May the bird of Paradise fly up your nose. It's not always the words or melody that gets to me, OK I'll admit, in the latter, the words are unique, but most important are the events th at weregoing on in my life at the time I was listening to that particular song. I have favorites from many special events, both good times and bad. They always take me back.

Tonight, I am getting ready to read Daniel Tamet's Born on a Blue Day. Not blue as in sad, but the color blue. Daniel Is a savant on the autism spectrum and Wednesday's are Blue to him. That's all I know so far. I haven't started the book yet.

Of course At the same time, I heard Dishwalla's song Counting Blue Cars start up on my computer. Hmmmm what a co-ink-i-dink as Tigger would say. Here are the lyrics


Must of been mid afternoon
I could tell by how far the child's shadow stretched out and
He walked with a purpose
In his sneakers, down the street
He had, many questions
Like children often do
He said,
Tell me all your thoughts on God?
Tell me am I very far?

Must of been late afternoon
On our way the sun broke free of the clouds
We count only blue cars
Skip the cracks, in the street
And ask many questions
Like children often do
We said,
Tell me all your thoughts on God?
'Cause I would really like to meet her.
And ask her why we're who we are.
Tell me all your thoughts on God,
Cause I am on my way to see her.
So tell me am I very far -
Am I very far now?

Its getting cold picked up the pace
How our shoes make hard noises in this place
Our clothes are stained
We pass many, cross eyed people
And ask many questions
Like children often do

Tell me all your thoughts on God?
'Cause I would really like to meet her.
And ask her why we're who we are.
Tell me all your thoughts on God?
'Cause I am on my way to see her.
So tell me am I very far?
Am I very far now
Am I very far now
Am I very far now

Anyone see the similarities:

Only Blue cars,
Repetitive behavior.
The insistence that God is a female.
The belief that if he keeps going he'll get there.
And lastly -- his persistent search to find out Why? Why we're who we are.

"Why" always gets me in trouble

2 comments:

Stephanie Mayberry said...

I spot other aspies too. I believe that we just know our own. There is something there that reaches out.
Never heard of other aspies doing this or saying this. Interesting though.

Tara Nagelhout said...

When they sang about counting only blue cars....I thought oh, I know that.