April Blue

Remember when you took an old painted cookie tin, stowed it behind a chalky gray stone between the roots of a sweet gum tree.  Nature helped secret your stash when  a mossy blanket in the moist shade inched up on the stone.  Sometimes the tin sat undisturbed through hundreds of moon cycles awaiting your return.  Laying in plain sight the plight of a cigar box can be to remain unopened – waiting for inspiration and inquisitiveness to lift its lid.  Stumbling upon it can be like greeting an old friend whose face appears at your door only once in a blue moon.

The month is April.  April is blue, bluer than a blue moon.  It is the month when awareness of autism is augmented and accentuated by monuments being bathed in blue light and public service announcements proclaiming the latest statistics meant to elucidate the epidemic.  But really, for us, it is the month when we marvel in Mason and the ripples of humanity that are set in motion by his daily doings.

Coach’s is a slightly dingy pub located in the near south side of Kansas City.  It serendipitously sits roughly equidistant from all of our houses.  Like an old tin box, it looks a little rusty and dented when we walk through the door but all our spirits lift at having a spot where we can share an hour even on short notice. 

In a booth there, flanked by Wee and me, Mason regaled us with smiles, high fives, knuckles, kisses, bouncing the booth and rubbing my sleeve with a dab of French fry grease.  He is a happy boy.  When he grabs my hand, tilts his head, looks deep into my eyes and says something guttural from his inner being, I have learned he wants the ketchup for his fries.  When I shake and squirt the stuff on his plate, there is joy on his face.  He lets me know that his excitement emanates from his having communicated – not from the promise of the sweet tomato flavor carried by the red goo on his plate.

April includes opening day at home – the home opener for the Kansas City boys in blue.  Spring training is over; the roster is set.  Finn & Joe have baseballs signed by their favorite players during the winter Fan-Fest where they practiced hitting, running bases, throwing and catching – amid shaking hands with the idols of their youth.  They both are looking forward to a season when they’ll get to go to The K (Kauffman Stadium) with their folks and be proud members of Gordo Nation.  Of course April also includes the birthday of the youngest of the brood who celebrates the month as a Minecraft Ninja (or some other super hero whose powers are only clear to a six year old boy)!?!

One facet of the new normal in our clan is that the clearest understanding of Mason often comes through his brother.  While Thomas may wonder what it would be like to see the world through Mason’s eyes, he never wonders who Mason is.  Mason is his happy, loving brother.  April is the month for Reel Spirit.  This is an event when students become actors, directors or producers to make films.  Each student, or team of students, submits their works in a citywide competition.  Thomas chose to do a documentary film – and keep it a surprise for his mom.  In his film, he wanted to tell Mason’s story.   This April, the month for autism awareness, Thomas’ flickering images will fill the screen to show that Mason is not autism, he is Mason.

Once again this year, the background color of this cigar box blog will morph to blue.  Certainly, the growing awareness of autism has helped heighten the commitment to research, improved the availability and quality of treatment, and brought greater understanding when people encounter a child or adult with autism.  All good things.  Yet sometimes the hyperbolae blocks the light that could allow us to see each of these individual people as who they are. 

So, why blue?  A blue moon does not circle the earth appearing to be bathed in blue light.  As always, the moon reflects the yellowish light from the sun off its grayish stippled surface.   Empirical evidence suggests that people with autism are hypersensitive when the moon is full – and, of course, a blue moon is simply the second full moon within a month.  The next blue moon will arrive in late July, 2015.  Perhaps it is a law of the universe or divine intervention that makes blue moons rare as a nod to those for whom a full moon is an event to be endured.

We may never make autism as rare as a blue moon.  But we already have the power to see through the blue aura of autism.  Try it.  Just look into the smiling eyes of someone who emits the light of his unique, loving, happy life.

-- td