I am amazed at the Autistic brain. Last night we went to see a movie in the theatre and as the credits were rolling, Isaac (Moneyman) glanced at the screen and recognized a name among the extras. “Alex Desert!”, he said. “That’s Barry Allen’s friend from The Flash!” I was amazed that he picked that name out of the credits so easily and was able to make the association so quickly. Most people wouldn’t have noticed the name. But I didn’t think much of it, since we’d watched the new Flash show a few days earlier. Isaac is amazing at this sort of thing. He knows so much about super heroes and the actors that portray them.
I made a point of remembering that name so I could google it when I got home.
When I searched the name, I was blown away. The actor had indeed played a friend of Barry Allen, but not in the show we’d just watched. Alex Desert played “Julio” in the Flash show from the 1990’s.
To be fair, we have the series on DVD, and Isaac has watched a few episodes, but probably not in the last six months.
Just another reminder of how powerful his mind can be, and that people on the Autism spectrum should not be considered “disabled” but perhaps “differently abled”.
I totally agree with this. I also have an autistic son and he is brilliant in many areas, mostly related to science and math, but also, surprisingly, with understanding the deep motivations of characters in books. “Differently abled” is a perfect description. In his words, the things that most people find difficult are easy for him, but the things that most people do without even thinking (such as social interactions) are impossible. What we need to do as a society, and also as churches, is find a way to include these brilliant autistic people in ways that make use of their brilliance, while helping them to navigate the areas that they find so difficult.