;-) How lovely to be an aspie [aspy?], Max. Wonderful poem.
Asperger's Syndrome---one of two misunderstood 'conditions' of those with
integrated lives.
The other's what I'll call Fear of Having Alzheimer's Syndrome.
A recent online, probably NYT, article explained the condition. The author
wrote that 4% of folk get Alzheimer's Syndrome [in USAmerica]. The other
96% don't. But they worry that they will. After a Certain Age, they're
concerned about forgetting where they've put their house or car keys, or
being unable to remember someone's name ["Meet my husband . . . uh . . ."]
or a word they just _know_ they know, but can't bring to mind.
The writer cited a study in which young people and old people read a lengthy
tract and answered questions about it. The young folk answered more
quickly. The old folk took a bit longer, and their responses were thought
to be more thorough. The researchers positively compared characteristics of
their responses with those of especially creative people.
One expert commented about the old folks' responses: "It's what we call
'wisdom'."
Older folk took longer to answer because they had so many more brain-stored
experiences/events/facts/ to process and relate to the tract and the
questions.
After reading the article, I relaxed considerably and found myself
'forgetting' fewer words.
A side note: Most people I know have the characteristics described of those
with Asperger's Syndrome. I try to limit myself to friendships with people
having those characteristics.
Have you remembered to put your clothes back on, Max?
There's a good boy.
joodles
2008/9/16 Max Richards <[log in to unmask]>
> In pursuit of quotable bits of recent verse,
> to illustrate a humorous polemic half-written
>
> about how contemporary poetry, in Australia
> at least, has fallen into the hands of aspies
>
> (folk with asperger's syndrome behaviours -
> I begin to see I'm on the spectrum somewhere)
>
> I went in search of Laurie Duggan online -
> here's there, in spades, and his blog has pix.
>
> And sends me off to other sites, like APRIL*,
> and one called DRAWINGBREATH.ORG -
>
> the slides, by Jean Fraser, show us
> what she saw biking round the coast of Kent.
>
> I want to go there, strip off by this sign
>
> CANTERBURY CITY COUNCIL
> NATURISM
> IS NOT
> CONDONED
> ON THIS BEACH
>
> and race about the beach before plunging
> boldly into water surely too cold for swimming.
>
> Wednesday 18 September 2008
> Max Richards
> Doncaster, Victoria
>
> *APRIL - see later email
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> This email was sent from Netspace Webmail: http://www.netspace.net.au
>
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