It is just after 2am and I am sitting on my back porch in the pouring rain. I am at our worn patio table, under a bright green patio umbrella with little lights with my laptop and a diet coke. It's kind of chilly and I'm shivering a bit but the rain sounds nice. I am happy as can be. Although I can hear something that sounds suspiciously like a frog croaking, I am not too crazy about that, I don't know where it is and I don't like the thought that it might be near my leg. Anyway, I'm feeling pretty good.
Have you ever read A Prayer for Owen Meany? I can't believe I read it for the first time almost 20 years ago. I've probably read it ten or twelve times, I just love it. The book (not the bastardized Simon Birch movie version that I refused to see, but the BOOK) meant a lot to me, it spoke to me about purpose, and "being of use". The character that John Irving wrote about so lovingly, Owen Meany, had a purpose. I have always wanted to be of use, to have a direction and a calling. I have been looking for that for a long time. I realize now that we all can be of use, even in a small way, if we just try and focus a bit on what we can offer the world.
For the past week I have spent every late night out here on the porch, while The Boy is sawing logs upstairs and my saint-of- a-husband snoozes on the couch and a football game re-runs on the tv to keep me company through the screen door. I sit at my laptop trying to focus, and to figure out how I can do something that will help my friends and my community. Specifically these days, trying to figure out a way to help my autism friends and the autism community. I'm in it for life, I tell people. My kid has capital-A autism. I am not passing through. So it's important to do what I can to make things better for all of us here in AutismLand.
Here's what I've been doing recently: scheming. I wake up scheming, I take showers scheming, I eat lunch scheming, I talk with friends and I shop for groceries and I homeschool and all the while I'm scheming. And the target for my schemes and plans and wishes for the past month has been the Autism Society of Middle Tennessee.
Your local Autism Society needs you more than you can imagine. They are underfunded and overstretched, and the people that work there do their own share of plotting and hoping and working hard, all on behalf of me and you and our friends in the autism community. Do you know how much your local Autism Society has in their operating budget? The Autism Society of Middle Tennessee had expenses totalling $154,000 in 2009; I know because I looked it up. Doesn't seem like enough to do much more than keep the lights on and the rent paid, but they put on workshops and are there when families need information and guidance. It's my understanding that now in 2011 they have a full-time Executive Director, an admin person, and three 10-hr a week part-time parent contacts that take calls from the public looking for information on autism spectrum disorder. That's it. They don't have the person-power or funding to do as much as they'd like to, clearly. So I've been trying to figure out ways to help.
Have you called your local Autism Society recently? When I called and offered some suggestions they were very polite, but how to carry out my schemes and plans, even if they are the best schemes and plans in the world, when they are so understaffed and with just enough in the coffers to get by?
I've found our Executive Director, Amanda Peltz, to be extremely open and willing to hear me out on my ideas, especially when she saw I was willing to put some time in and help make things happen. So far we've gotten a few things on the table, like a special Weight Watchers meeting just for caregivers of people with autism (though we have to find 25 paying participants to get it up and running); the ASMT has just made the announcement in their most recent email newsletter, so we'll have to see how that pans out. But when I suggested an Autism Society Day at our local botanical gardens running a train exhibit, Amanda made it happen. When I suggested a few ideas for upcoming workshops for families, Amanda suggested I sit on the Advisory Committee. When I told her I thought we could have a public showing of an autism-related film at a local movie house to raise money she thought the idea was a good one and we're looking into that. We have spoken about many ways to make things better for our community and she is always open to hearing more. I have a surprise or two for the ASMT, a few things I have been working on late at night here on the porch, and I can't wait to show them. The key, I think, is that Amanda and others at the ASMT know that I will do everything I can to help make things happen, that I won't just drop ideas at their doorstep, that I will try to do my part to help. Will you?
If you are like me, a lifer, please give some thought on how to pitch in at your local autism organization. Why not grab a couple bottles of wine and some friends one night and stuff some envelopes for an upcoming fundraising drive? Maybe sit on a committee, or plan an outing?
If you want to help your autism friends out in the real world, offer to help with something you're good at your that you like to do -- if you like to cook and talk with people, what about offering to set up a monthly autism-family-friendly potluck at your church or community center? Or a bake sale to help raise some money? Or sponsor a Special Olympics team that might welcome a few kids with autism, or even be a coach?
Lots of things we can do. Just takes a little effort, a little focus. And if you help your local Autism Society or other organization today they will be there to help you and your family and your friends tomorrow. We lifers have to stick together.
Time to go in. I think that frog might be back.
Have you ever read A Prayer for Owen Meany? I can't believe I read it for the first time almost 20 years ago. I've probably read it ten or twelve times, I just love it. The book (not the bastardized Simon Birch movie version that I refused to see, but the BOOK) meant a lot to me, it spoke to me about purpose, and "being of use". The character that John Irving wrote about so lovingly, Owen Meany, had a purpose. I have always wanted to be of use, to have a direction and a calling. I have been looking for that for a long time. I realize now that we all can be of use, even in a small way, if we just try and focus a bit on what we can offer the world.
For the past week I have spent every late night out here on the porch, while The Boy is sawing logs upstairs and my saint-of- a-husband snoozes on the couch and a football game re-runs on the tv to keep me company through the screen door. I sit at my laptop trying to focus, and to figure out how I can do something that will help my friends and my community. Specifically these days, trying to figure out a way to help my autism friends and the autism community. I'm in it for life, I tell people. My kid has capital-A autism. I am not passing through. So it's important to do what I can to make things better for all of us here in AutismLand.
Here's what I've been doing recently: scheming. I wake up scheming, I take showers scheming, I eat lunch scheming, I talk with friends and I shop for groceries and I homeschool and all the while I'm scheming. And the target for my schemes and plans and wishes for the past month has been the Autism Society of Middle Tennessee.
Your local Autism Society needs you more than you can imagine. They are underfunded and overstretched, and the people that work there do their own share of plotting and hoping and working hard, all on behalf of me and you and our friends in the autism community. Do you know how much your local Autism Society has in their operating budget? The Autism Society of Middle Tennessee had expenses totalling $154,000 in 2009; I know because I looked it up. Doesn't seem like enough to do much more than keep the lights on and the rent paid, but they put on workshops and are there when families need information and guidance. It's my understanding that now in 2011 they have a full-time Executive Director, an admin person, and three 10-hr a week part-time parent contacts that take calls from the public looking for information on autism spectrum disorder. That's it. They don't have the person-power or funding to do as much as they'd like to, clearly. So I've been trying to figure out ways to help.
Have you called your local Autism Society recently? When I called and offered some suggestions they were very polite, but how to carry out my schemes and plans, even if they are the best schemes and plans in the world, when they are so understaffed and with just enough in the coffers to get by?
I've found our Executive Director, Amanda Peltz, to be extremely open and willing to hear me out on my ideas, especially when she saw I was willing to put some time in and help make things happen. So far we've gotten a few things on the table, like a special Weight Watchers meeting just for caregivers of people with autism (though we have to find 25 paying participants to get it up and running); the ASMT has just made the announcement in their most recent email newsletter, so we'll have to see how that pans out. But when I suggested an Autism Society Day at our local botanical gardens running a train exhibit, Amanda made it happen. When I suggested a few ideas for upcoming workshops for families, Amanda suggested I sit on the Advisory Committee. When I told her I thought we could have a public showing of an autism-related film at a local movie house to raise money she thought the idea was a good one and we're looking into that. We have spoken about many ways to make things better for our community and she is always open to hearing more. I have a surprise or two for the ASMT, a few things I have been working on late at night here on the porch, and I can't wait to show them. The key, I think, is that Amanda and others at the ASMT know that I will do everything I can to help make things happen, that I won't just drop ideas at their doorstep, that I will try to do my part to help. Will you?
If you are like me, a lifer, please give some thought on how to pitch in at your local autism organization. Why not grab a couple bottles of wine and some friends one night and stuff some envelopes for an upcoming fundraising drive? Maybe sit on a committee, or plan an outing?
If you want to help your autism friends out in the real world, offer to help with something you're good at your that you like to do -- if you like to cook and talk with people, what about offering to set up a monthly autism-family-friendly potluck at your church or community center? Or a bake sale to help raise some money? Or sponsor a Special Olympics team that might welcome a few kids with autism, or even be a coach?
Lots of things we can do. Just takes a little effort, a little focus. And if you help your local Autism Society or other organization today they will be there to help you and your family and your friends tomorrow. We lifers have to stick together.
Time to go in. I think that frog might be back.
 |
| The back porch on a warmer, drier evening. |
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