Flying

LAX to Portland – In the airport, a stentorious voice emits from invisible speakers honouring US Military personal for their service it’s all a bit Brave New World meets 1984. There’s WiFi everywhere and nowhere, in the ether, in the somewhere else.

I am travelling around the USA to find out about the life of a woman, a woman who died in strange circumstances last year. She was a gifted singer and musician as well as a fine writer. I decided to create a memorial to her, a piece of art of which she would approve – which will be difficult because as she herself said: “I can’t consider anything finished unless it is perfect and nothing is perfect.” You see the other thing about this woman, that informed everything she was and did, is that she had Aspergers, she was a high functioning autistic woman, a savant if you will, one that had a way with words. She made a list, a list of traits – I suggested she do this, thinking there would be maybe 20 things at most but she came back with 213 things.

Here are some of them:

122. I started keeping a journal as a child in order to remember how terrible it was to be a child.

148. I have taken a vow of silence and was put on voice rest and it was like a dream vacation to not have to speak.

181. People often think that I am rude when I am, in fact, obsessed with being polite and friendly

195. I cannot, under any circumstances, do two things at once.


What surprises and saddens me is that there’s no mention of her “service” over the Public Address system.