and now I reveal my favourite blog
You won’t believe what seems to have remained my favourite blog since I first discovered it. I say this without fear of offending you, my friends, since none of you are trying to achieve what this blog achieves. You know how there are blogs you love to visit when you are in a certain mood, and some days you want to visit all the blogs on your list plus explore a few new ones, and sometimes you don’t feel like reading much but there are those two or three that you know will have just the right tone for today? For every day? This is one of those two or three.
I know, it’s probably not like that for all of you who can use an RSS feed. Usual story, this old computer won’t go there. So you are all getting the benefit of an actual visit from me even if I don’t comment, even if you haven’t written anything since the last time I visited.
OK, drumroll. My favourite blog is: The Chronicles of Feral Beast. An 11-year-old boy! I look forward to going and seeing what he has written every day. My initial motivation was to read how an autistic boy views his world since our Jaylen doesn’t speak. It’s so much easier for us speakers if we can occasionally get it in words rather than Jaylen’s language which is, perhaps, energy transfer or telepathy. Or sign language.
But also there’s something wonderful about the autistics I know, which are the two mentioned above. There is something crystal clear about their aura, something utterly untainted. They might be bruised by an event or find things in their environment that disturb them, and they might react with bemusement, confusion, possibly even tantrums or withdrawal. But the one thing they never do is start playing the game. If the problem is rectified, they return to their crystal clear, untainted, open and trusting selves.
Feral Beast is a very clever boy who is interested in all things scientific and historic, and who writes fabulous stories of fantasy and suspense. He had a fairly unpleasant few years in a normal school until eventually his mother Jayne started teaching him at home. It’s the ultimate heartwarming, happy-ending story, quite a tear-jerker, but he just says:
I think you wont be crying on my blog anymore.
I don’t want the blog to be a soppy one.
And it isn’t. A soppy one. His life is full of fact-finding missions and excursions, fabulous books and TV shows full of challenging ideas, and games and stories. Life sparkles there. I never seem to tire of it.
How fascinating. When I was at high school we had a girl with Autism in our year level. Her and I used to correspond via letters (she was non verbal). It was absolutely amazing. I so LOVED the way she described things. It just blew my mind away. It was such a special time for me.
Thanks Hilary. I love every blog I go on to. I love your blog as well, keep up the good work.
You’ve made his month with your post, thanks Hilary!
Got a boy here with the biggest smile on his dial .
Lightening, do you mean she didn’t talk but could write? I always wonder if it’s worth trying to introduce Jaylen to a computer keyboard and seeing if anything comes of it. He used to have a great affinity with letters before he abandoned speech.
Thanks Feral. And I need to tell you that I am having the same problem on your new blog template as I am having on your mum’s. I don’t seem to be able to leave comments anymore because my computer is full of glitches. Maybe sometimes I will go to an internet cafe and leave 10 at once. But rest assured I will still be reading everything you have to say.
Well Jayne, that puts a big smile on my dial too.