Dear all,

Intersting read..

AWARENESS

'David Is David': Growing With an Autistic Brother

[From the June 10, Health section of the NY Times. Thanks to Joe

Arlotta.]

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/06/10/health/10AUTI.html

In a new book, "The Ride Together: A Brother and Sister's Memoir of

Autism in the Family," Paul and Judy Karasik tell the story of growing up in

a tall Victorian house in Chevy Chase, Md., with their parents and two

brothers, Michael and David. David, the oldest, is autistic and mildly

retarded, and the book follows him as he grows from infancy to middle age.

(He is now in his 50's and lives in a group home near Washington.)

Excerpts follow; the first is set in 1960, the second in 1966. Judy Karasik

narrates; the cartoons are by Paul Karasik [See cartoon at the provided URL

above.]

"How come David never has to clean up his room?" I asked.

Michael opened up the door to the toy furnace and blew out the ghostly

fire hovering over the small white bricks of solid fuel. He turned a lever,

steam hissed out from the water tank, the shiny silver pistons reduced their

pace, and the engine's wheel stopped its spinning.

"What are you talking about?" he asked. "Look at the wheel slow down,

Judy," said Paul, whose mind had remained on the steam engine.

"He gets special treatment," I said. "That's not right. It's not

fair."

"Huh?" Michael asked, puzzled. "Oh yeah," he said, as his brain

stretched around to include my way of seeing things. He pulled open the door

to the furnace, lit another match, and reached in to reignite the cube.

"Well, Judy, David is David," Michael said. "You know who he is."

The fuel took. Trembling smoke-shaped flames chased one another along

the brick's length.

"It's not fair," I said. "It's always like this. We get one set of

rules but he gets another."

David didn't have to make his bed, rake leaves or clear the table. He

interrupted. He had his shows. He ate more cookies than anybody else. It

wasn't right and we had done nothing - just sat there and watched - while

first Mommy, then Daddy, then Mommy again, made exceptions for David.

"Fairness is important," I said. "Michael, here's this huge

unfairness, right in the middle of everything. Every day."

Paul turned his attention away from the engine for a moment. "It has

to be fair," he said.

Michael shook his head. "Judy, it is not a big deal. You make such a

big deal out of stuff." . . .

"Somebody needs to ask them why."

"So go ask them, that's O.K.," Michael replied, increasingly annoyed.

"I'm busy." . . .

Mom turned her attention to me and said, in a matter-of-fact way:

"Well, Judy, David gets some things easier because a lot of ordinary things

are harder for him. Getting through the day is harder for David than it is

for the rest of us."

"Hard?" I replied. His life didn't look so hard to me. "Mommy!"

+Article continues: http://www.nytimes.com/2003/06/10/health/10AUTI.html

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kennedy