09 Jan 2011
“We know what a person thinks not when he tells us what he thinks, but by his actions.” ~Isaac Bashevis Singer
Random follow-up stuff:
- When I asked Pearlsky to “look daddy in the eyes” last night, she turned to me, rather purposely, and when her face was facing me, she closed her eyes and laughed.
- Have I told you Pearlsky can’t communicate?
- Do the severely disabled, who have no communication, have a personality? What is “personality”? (a whole other post …)
- I modified the style and color of the fonts and added a bit of white space to the blog today. Typology wise, it is the same as the last look and feel.
- Sorry, Abby, but I am perfect. (ref. comment on last post)
- Yes, Kandee, I am brilliant. (ref. other comment on last post)
- If you have not put your image in the gallery, you really should consider it. Check it out.
- How do you define “smart-ass” when used in the following sentence?
Yes, it is amazing but she really does have a smart-ass personality when, in fact, her personality comes through.
You said:
‘Do the severely disabled, who have no communication, have a personality?’
But isn’t what she did a form of communication?
Personality aside, I ask myself this a lot as well. If Bennett comes over to me and takes my hand and tries to get my attention by hitting me until I figure out what he wants, he is communicating with me. I don’t DIG that, but it is communication. Is it fair to say that what she did is, at least in some way, perhaps some kind of communication, at least on a level that she is capable of?
It’s what I hinted at before in a different communication about the pool. It makes me wonder, how sophisticated are the thoughts that go on inside her brain and what happens from the time she might originate the thought to the moment when it might come time to express that thought. The brain is so complex, a lot can happen in that one/1,000,000 of a second that it takes for that thought to travel along whatever pathway it travels, and what is going on IN those pathways? That we can’t figure out yet. Technological limitations.
Sadly, our techno-folk spend way more time and money trying to figure out how to make a better portable phone, cure my baldness, grow harder dicks or make us all thin without us actually working for it than on stuff like how the brain works.
But I think that the exchange from both days are definitely some kind of communication. The key is learning the language, if that’s even possible to decipher.
Or I could just be talking out of my ass. That’s how I communicate.
I don’t know if you’ve ever heard of a young woman named Carly Fleischmann, but in her own words, “My name is Carly Fleischmann and as long as I can remember I’ve been diagnosed with autism.
I am not able to talk out of my mouth, however I have found another way to communicate by spelling on my computer”
I remember seeing a video of her dad, astonished when they found out she could communicate, saying something about the way they talked around her all along, assuming she not only couldn’t communicate, but couldn’t understand anything going on around her because of the severity of her autistic behavior. I know it’s not even close to what you are going through with your daughter, but something about your story reminds me of hers. I bet your daughter understands a lot more than she is capable of showing. And, she does seem like a very funny girl in some of the things she does. I remember being told once that a sense of humor in very young children is a sign of intelligence, as it takes complicated reasoning to understand what is being said and put a twist on the situation.
Personality is in the eyes of the beholder.
Every person has their own unique personality. Pearlsky is obviously a person. The fact that some persons who are disabled lack some of the properties that characterize personhood should not prevent us from recognizing in them persons like ourselves. Because the lives of all persons are incommensurable, we should never forget the equal dignity of each person’s life, regardless of ability.
If it’s not communication, it at least sounds like a meaningful response.
I think “smart-ass” refers to behavior which seems to be for the express purpose of screwing with others for laughs. Seems like one of those responses that comes from being regularly underestimated.