Poet, Maya Angelou, once stated that "you can tell a lot about a person by the way he/she handles these three things: a rainy day, lost luggage, and tangled Christmas tree lights." Well, sorry Maya, but I totally disagree. As an unfamiliar bystander, you have no idea what preceded that occasion in that person's life. For example, maybe that person just found out someone close to her has terminal cancer and lost her luggage on the way to a final visit. Or perhaps that boy who is freaking because it's a rainy day has autism and can't abide the feeling of the rain pelting down like little pin needles on his face. My point is, unless you know everything happening in that person's life, how can you judge? You can't. I'll coin another well known phrase: Never judge a person until you have walked a mile in their shoes. This is my philosophy on life.
My two children are my guides and my gurus. My son has Asperger's syndrome and obsessive compulsive disorder. People aren't sure how to react when he hits overload or has anxiety meltdowns or needs to tap his foot on the floor 4 times before leaving a room. He can one minute be flapping his hands and making a noise close to singing (stimming), and then two seconds later be waxing philosophical about stem-cell research. It's quite a paradox. I always tended to think outside the box myself but never quite to his degree. I have learned not to judge, to be patient (I try), and to never limit expectations based on appearances. His world has opened up my eyes to so many different perspectives. It has been both a challenge and a privilege.
