Not Like Us

The edit for Rumi’s Field has been intense this week, and has felt more important to pursue than other things. That said, there are lots of “other things” going on, ideas and feelings bouncing around inside of me to explore, and I don’t want to lose my habit of writing almost daily.

I read an interesting interview with John Elder Robison the other day, in which he discusses his new book, Switched On. John Elder feels like an old friend at this point, since his book on his Asperger’s experience, Look Me In The Eye, was one of the first I read on the matter. And, as a longtime fan of his brother Augusten Burrough’s memoirs, I feel like I’ve known John Elder longer than that.

The interview covers much interesting ground regarding the new book, and John Elder’s experience in a research study that might be used to “treat” some of the aspects of autism. I’m reading the book now, and will report more fully later. What catches my eye right now is this comment made on the article.

Years ago a professor from De Paul U., Chicago, said in a rehab admin class I was taking, “The only effective response to Not Like Us is when every Outlier has learned to be their own ambassador. And even that will be only partially effective against prejudice and discounting, because Not Like Us is a primal response that every human must consciously learn to control.”

There’s something about that phrase “Not Like Us” that really goes inside of me. Partly just from learning that it’s a “real thing,” a concept, a phrase, one that’s in use by others as they look at the world, and not a mere figment of my wounded ego. Partly because of my own outlier experience, the manner in which Not Like Us operates in my family of origin, and my own attempts to be my own ambassador. And partly because I find myself feeling quite disturbed when I look at the current cultural and political “wars” going on here in this country, at the racism, the classism, the groupism, the scapegoating, the blaming. It really does feel like a primal response that has flown wildly out of control, which helps to shed light, perhaps, on the iconic One of Us scene from Freaks.

It feels like a bad time to be Not Like Us.

photo credit: fREAK-fEST via photopin (license)

The post Not Like Us appeared first on Everything is Research: Life, Asperger's, and the Written Word.