Displacing a bit of aggression

One of the tasks on my spring cleaning list was to cut back some ridiculously overgrown rosebushes behind my deck, which had sprawled out over the concrete walkway. Because I am seriously phobic about power tools, I used a small pair of hand shears to do the whole job. It took a long time, but at least it was a more productive way of dealing with feelings of frustration than getting into useless arguments with trollish types on the Internet. Here's what the bushes look like now; I didn't try to cut them evenly across the top because they grow so fast that they wouldn't stay like that anyway.



The reason they needed so much pruning was because they grew to about twice the size that the catalog said they would, and I suspect that's not even their full growth. That will teach me to do independent research in the future, rather than impulsively ordering plants because they have pretty catalog pictures. They do look good when they're in bloom, though, so I suppose I can't complain too much about the extra maintenance.

I have been enjoying the spring weather. This past winter was so dark and dreary that it just seemed to go on forever. As I commented on Clay's blog in March, on a gloomy, cold, damp afternoon while I was on the highway in southeastern Ohio going toward Wheeling, West Virginia, I noticed a car with the license plate "BE SUNNY," as if the owner might be praying for a reprieve from winter's curse, but without having that prayer answered. Today is another cloudy and chilly day; but at least the winter is finally over, so, as with the roses, I can't complain too much.

Supporting Local Autism Societies

The Autism Society of Southeastern Ohio will be holding a benefit concert on Friday, April 24, 2009. The proceeds will be used in accordance with the group's mission statement, which provides that it is "committed to increasing opportunities by raising public awareness, outreach, education, collaboration, and community events." If you live in this area, please consider attending the fundraiser; and if you are in another part of the country, keep in mind that your local autism society also depends on events such as this to raise money to provide services and assistance to families and autistic adults and to promote inclusion and acceptance. Autism societies typically receive only small amounts of corporate donations.

Battle Fatigue

Regular readers of my blog will have noticed that I've been posting less often for the past several months. At first I thought my lack of interest in blogging might have been caused by seasonal depression over the long, gloomy winter. But it's been sunny and warm in my area all week; the birds are chirping merrily, the daffodils are blooming, and the grass is looking much greener; and now I feel, if anything, even less inclined to blog. For now, I just want to get out and enjoy the beautiful weather and be part of the real world, far away from all the pointless bickering that has been going on in the online autistic community.

I had a conversation last year with a friend who described autistic rights bloggers as "always at the barricades." That observation struck me as very accurate. We've had so many enemies to confront over the years that we have become hypervigilant, always looking for the next threat. And if we don't have a real enemy at close range, we're just as likely to lob virtual Molotov cocktails at each other.

That level of combativeness might at one time have been necessary, in the sense in which Malcolm X used the word; but it is not sustainable, either for an individual or for a community. Supporters of autistic civil rights, within the broader landscape of disability rights, now exist in sufficient numbers so that we can and should shift the focus away from Internet wars and toward the less exciting—but far more important—work of making the constructive real-life changes that we need to see in society.

As of now, this blog is on hiatus. When I come across general announcements that may be of interest to my readers I'll continue to repost them, such as the information about the Campaign for Disability Employment that I posted last week. I may write original articles on occasion, mainly about social and cultural issues, if I feel inspired to do so. There will be no more Molotov cocktail entries, though. I'll decide whether to return to posting more regularly after I've had a good long time to decompress and to consider what might be done with this blog in the future.

Wishing all of my readers a good spring, with plenty of time to enjoy the outdoors, and for those in the Southern Hemisphere a pleasant autumn.