FINDING AND NURTURING YOUR GIFT
I love this quote and I love the philosophy it contains. I like the old conception of 'genius,' which referred not to the exceptional few who excel in some field or another but to the special quality unique to each person. This quote explains one, of many, reasons I move away from the impairment model of autism - the focus on deficiencies which invites the sympathies of people, which they readily offer, if they offer nothing else - towards a focus on the talents, passions, interests, and abilities of autistic people (and of people in general).
I encourage autistic people to seek to expand their special interests and passions outwards into the world, productively and socially; I encourage 'society' to make any necessary accommodations that enables autistic people to be able to expand their being outwards in this way.
Autistic people face struggles and have needs; they also have talents and abilities. They should be helped to find their talents and given the support and encouragement they need in nurturing them.
I am very much concerned with the creative unfolding of all the talents, a mutual growth that benefits each and all. This approach is entirely the converse of the impairment model which defines autistic people in terms of their deficiencies:
Man does not cease to interest me
When he ceases to be miserable.
Quite the contrary!
That it is important to aid him
In the beginning goes without saying,
Like a plant it is essential
To water at first,
But this is in order to get it to flower
And I am concerned with the blossom.
