This wasn't specifically inspired by this recent day log, but it did get me started thinking about something that has been building for a while. Also, about something I can talk about here in a manner I couldn't on social media: the spread of "nueurodivergent" as an identity. I also apologize for the quotation marks, but I used them purposely: this is about the adaptation of "somewhere on the spectrum" as a simple phrase with its own connotations, not simply about being on the Autism spectrum.

First, a little history, not at all objective, but just as I have seen things developed, as a person born in 1979. When I was a child, the word "autistic" and the concept were unknown. Of course, I was a kid, but even most adults were probably not that familiar with the idea---and it was probably the 1988 movie Rainman that brought the idea of autism into the public consciousness. But that movie featured an autistic character who was almost totally non-verbal and also a genius

Our story weaved in out of several towns and many years: 

so many layers

We did not follow a straight path of meet, join, disperse

it was/ is  more of a series of lines that converged then diverged 

In twenty years,  forty ?   

I am sure we will meet again

maybe just a chance meeting at a long closed suburban mall 

In bed, seeking calm 

Tossing and turning 

trying to block out the sound of traffic 

Head on pillow but

mind at 100 miles an hour

racing through the list of forgotten calls and misplaced keys

Sometime after one, 

her thoughts move to a low hum

search engine shifts to idle