Comments on: Let’s play assumption ping-pong again, or not.

By: Betsy

Betsy — Sat, 27 Jan 2007 11:27:03 +0000

Thank you so much for your video “In My Own Language.” I have watched it over and over again, as it has affected me very deeply. You have put into words something that I am only beginning to understand.

I have a daughter with Down syndrome, who does not speak. But she has a message just as you do. I have written about you on my blog today if you care to read it. http://bits-of-betsy.blogspot.com/

Many of us strive to positively affect at least one person in our lifetime…and believe that if we do that, we can consider ourselves successful.

I think you should consider yourself immensely successful.

Betsy

By: Basil White

Basil White — Sat, 27 Jan 2007 11:12:05 +0000

Thank you for your video. There’s a LJ discussion on it at http://community.livejournal.com/asperger/1410881.html

Your video asks meaningful questions about how people define communication. For me, the meaning of communication is the response you get from making the communication. If you interact with water, the response of the water is the meaning of your communication with it.

But my definition of communication is different from my definition of language. If I knock down a tree in the middle of the forest, I have communicated with the tree, but is knocking down a tree an act of language? Someone would have to be able to ask the tree.

By: Rick Beale

Rick Beale — Sat, 27 Jan 2007 03:03:12 +0000

I’m so impressed with your website. Your poetry is amazing. I’m not assuming you want to discuss this…but my daughter is autistic. I watched your video. I immerse myself in her world and don’t find it too different from mine. I want to show her your video because I know (even though she’s young) she’d understand it fully.

I have a question: you talk about your own language and how you interact differently with the world around you. For you, would you interpret the differences as differences in how you sense your interactions? I guess I have another question too: Feelings. What does that word mean to you? The reason I ask is because I think my daughter interprets feelings much different than some people. For example, sadness is not always the result of how most people would interpret an event which would cause someone to be sad.

I thank you so much in advance for your response…and look forward to hearing from you further.

Rick

By: Kevin Smathers

Kevin Smathers — Sat, 27 Jan 2007 00:15:28 +0000

More of a guess than an assumption, but from the way that you describe your language I guess that your experience of a relatively quiet environment is much the same as I would experience walking into a disco with lights flashing in my face, loud music making thoughts slippery, and everyone that was there trying to talk to me at once so that I have nothing to grasp on to as a point of reference for what to pay attention to and what to ignore.

By: Elizabeth

Elizabeth — Fri, 26 Jan 2007 23:33:39 +0000

just revisited your blog & read Jan 17th comments about overload and trying for non-existence. My gosh that was me. All through childhood and early adulthood. If only people would understand – try to understand – *sigh* I totally get the wanting to turn into the cold smooth floor thing.
Did you pick your YouTube name from the book about cats?

By: Jan

Jan — Fri, 26 Jan 2007 16:36:44 +0000

thank you for your voice when many of us want to understand and listen.

By: Chris Corrigan

Chris Corrigan — Fri, 26 Jan 2007 04:36:24 +0000

Just come across your blog, through your video in your native language. I blogged your work and subscribed to your feed.

I wonder what an RSS feed would look like that actually contained the media of your native language. I wonder if there will ever be a time when we can share sensations over the web, to experience something of each other’s world’s in a way that does not require translation…

Until that day, I’ll just keep reading what you write and watching what you do. Thanks for putting it out there.

By: Miut

Miut — Thu, 25 Jan 2007 11:04:29 +0000

I don’t know why people will often assume that another person has been lying if that person turns out not to fit one of their assumptions, even if that person never claimed to. Or if that person doesn’t fit into a particular pre-conceived idea of theirs. It’s happened to me before, as well as several people I know.

I can tend towards them myself, as well as having them made about me. I think that having so many made about me may also be the reason that I try to be cautious about them, though.

By: ballastexistenz

ballastexistenz — Wed, 24 Jan 2007 18:38:05 +0000

That’s one reason I tend to be rather cautious with mine. Some amount of assumption is unavoidable, but there’s a difference between having assumptions and clinging to them.

By: bullet

bullet — Wed, 24 Jan 2007 18:29:30 +0000

I don’t like assumptions. I’ve had too many made about me.