Beautifully written, Ms. Spinner. I loved, especially, your concluding sentence. We are all ordinary and extraordinary at the same time. We all just want to belong.

Kudos to you as a parent of children with autism. Thank your for your kind attention to your children’s needs and putting aside your story that their story may sing some day.

I have a friend of a friend who is a mother to an autistic child of five. She refuses to get him tested. She is denial because she is wrapped up in her traumatic story, but tragically the victim of this myopic tunnel vision of her fear is her five year old son, who can only speak in tongues only his mother can understand.

This has a sliver of relevance to your wonderfully written article, but the plight of children, unheard, is a passion close to my heart.

I ask you, what would a bystander do while watching the door on this lovely child of autism close? I hope she will wake up from her story and let language enter into the cloistered mind of her beautiful son.

I want to spam her with all sorts of entreaties to seek help. What are your opinions of autism among children? It is obvious she loves her child, but how can we help mothers who won’t wake up to the ordinariness of autism. It is not a stigma. He is touched by the hand of God. Let his light shine through, would be what I would tell her. But, I can’t even wake up myself or my wife. Who am I to tell her, her story?

Thank you for a thought provoking morning.

Peace out.