#318: Moving Boulders - Revisited

Starting this month, every last Tuesday will feature a piece from the archives, written by a regular member of the community. The hope here is to continue to share the focus among the entire community — bringing in friendly voices who you may not have heard from so regularly, but who we hope to hear more from in the future. The piece will stay the same, but the fresh lead-in, written by a new author (who you likely know, and is already part of the CFC) may add different colors and light to the way you experience the piece. Hope you enjoy!

- Corey

NEW lead-in from Muayyad Al-Chalabi:

Sometimes, I fall into the trap of “judging a book by its cover”. I can judge someone based on what I see on the outside, or on what I perceive — disregarding the hidden gems in people and what they can do. I can forget how my perceptions, judgments, and social decisions affect how others are able to present themselves. Here, Tim points out the inner jewels that can be exposed when someone is able to express themselves through out-of-the-ordinary means.

- Muayyad

Moving Boulders

A little while ago, Larry Bissonette came to Cincinnati for a visit. Larry was the subject of a film “Wretches and Jabberers,” following some of his global travels. He is both autistic and uses typing as a way of expressing his thoughts. In the first few scenes of the movie, he flaps his hands and paces around rooms and repeats phrases that seemed typically “autistic” to me. But soon though, he began typing, sharing profound, insightful and relevant thoughts. 

At Starfire, Larry and his facilitator, Pascal, told the story of how Larry studied and practiced a sort of mindful, meditative focus that allows him to move his fingers enough to type out his thoughts.

Larry is also a talented painter, so one of the first questions asked was if he prefers to communicate with typing or through painting. Pascal touched Larry’s shoulder, and his body seemed to settle in. He began typing:

“Painting is like flowing water, typing is like moving boulders.”

Larry went from being someone who I previously would have completely dismissed, discounted and disrespected to somebody that I think of as a black-belt-ninja-Jedi-master-badass-boulder-buster who has honed and disciplined his body and mind in a way that is deeply admirable to me.

I more recently sat down with an impressive young man who I have come to admire deeply. Like Larry, he communicates by typing. Somewhere in one of our conversations, we talked about faith and I asked him if he practiced any particular religion. 

He then typed: 

“I have noticed a connection between people who easily believe in God, but have a very hard time to believe in me. LOL. ” 

I was struck by how profound that insight was, and also how heartbreaking it must be for him, and what a tragic loss it would be if we can’t find a way to create the space for this brilliant young voice to be heard.

I started to question why I needed to have a certainty that someone was intelligent and fully present in order to treat them with dignity. And this has profoundly shaped my belief that a better, more respectful and hopeful way forward was to assume that everyone has the same degree of awareness, however they showed up.