{"id":2101,"date":"2011-08-18T16:29:12","date_gmt":"2011-08-18T20:29:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/susansenator.com\/blog\/?p=2101"},"modified":"2011-08-18T16:42:50","modified_gmt":"2011-08-18T20:42:50","slug":"getting-there","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/susansenator.com\/blog\/2011\/08\/getting-there\/","title":{"rendered":"Getting There"},"content":{"rendered":"

Just finished Left Neglected<\/em><\/a> by Lisa Genova.\u00a0 Genova seems to be well-versed in brain disorders; I think she studied neuroscience at Harvard.\u00a0 Left Neglected<\/em> is about a disability called “Left Neglect” that can result from a right brain trauma, in which the patient misses seeing items on the left.\u00a0 It is hard for me to imagine that, but Genova draws a believable portait of Sarah, the main character, who is badly injured in a car accident (using the cell phone while driving in the rain, let that be a warning!).\u00a0 Sarah is (was) a high-powered Alpha woman prior to the accident and spends much of the book battling both her Left Neglect and also the idea of having a disability itself.\u00a0 That is why I liked the book (well, it is also a fun read).<\/p>\n

The concept of separating ones self from ones disability is something I think about a lot, especially in terms of Nat and his autism.\u00a0 Sometimes I feel like autism defines him, and makes him someone who seems younger than he is, less capable, and somehow also more lovable because he bends my heart with his need.\u00a0 Other times I feel like the autism is just something that gets in his way, that he operates around or through.\u00a0 It clouds his mind so that he can’t see the right words.\u00a0 It presses in on him when he doesn’t understand what is expected of him, and the world then seems to be going by too fast.\u00a0 No, maybe that is when I love him all the more, because I can see Nat distinctly apart from autism and his supreme efforts at purely existing here — and my heart swells with pride.<\/p>\n

There is a point in Left Neglected<\/em> where Sarah crosses over into acceptance.\u00a0 I don’t want to spoil the book for anyone, but when it happens it is at a moment when she feels both the most ridiculous and yet also the most free — and she feels like a cool person because of the freedom.\u00a0 Even though she would never be caught dead in this particular situation before the accident.\u00a0 She finally lets her freak flag fly, which is what it’s all about.<\/p>\n

I’m still trying to get to the point where I do not care what others may think of Nat when he is deeply into his stimming.\u00a0 Or what I mean is, I am trying to get to the point where I do not think anyone is judging Nat when he is deeply into his stimming.\u00a0 I so often assume they are laughing at him, not getting it; but I really don’t know what their looks or smiles mean at all.\u00a0 I wish I could be proud of him at all times, instead of feel the burn of embarrassment and anger (at the others).\u00a0 I admired the way Sarah ultimately handles her own embarrassment and is humbled by her struggle — the way we are all humbled by life eventually.\u00a0 Once we can move past our feelings of humiliation and say, “Okay, yes, okay,” the way Nat does — “Okay, yes, okay, I am flawed and parts of me are ugly.\u00a0 Sigh, move on.\u00a0 Or as Sarah learned when she started walking at last:\u00a0 Cane-Step-Drag-Breathe.<\/em><\/p>\n

Whatever gets you there, gets you there.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Just finished Left Neglected by Lisa Genova.\u00a0 Genova seems to be well-versed in brain disorders; I think she studied neuroscience at Harvard.\u00a0 Left Neglected is about a disability called “Left Neglect” that can result from a right brain trauma, in which the patient misses seeing items on the left.\u00a0 It is hard for me to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2101","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pSTth-xT","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/susansenator.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2101","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/susansenator.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/susansenator.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/susansenator.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/susansenator.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2101"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/susansenator.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2101\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2103,"href":"https:\/\/susansenator.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2101\/revisions\/2103"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/susansenator.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2101"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/susansenator.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2101"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/susansenator.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2101"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}