Hello world!
So this is it. The blogosphere. (settles into a comfy chair) Not bad. Not bad at all.
Life is strange. There are times when you see the big events coming a mile away and then there are times when they sneak up and smash in your kneecaps, leaving you hobbling along the road yelling “what the f*ck was that”? Other times, though, it’s just a bunch of little things that come together, like the trickle of a thousand streams, and become the raging river of your life’s journey.
During the early 1980s, my high school coming-of-age years, my dear friend Gary Lawson and I spent quite a few study periods in the school library playing chess and discussing world events. Being both amateur military historians and wargamers, we pondered it all. Nuclear war, communism, poverty, who’d win a Fisher v. Karpov match. In our youth, we solved all the world’s problems while our forces fenced across the board.
Later, in 1986, as a budding software geek in pursuit of a degree in computer science, I wrote a letter to the editor of the college newspaper. It was in response to the previously published letter which had focused on abortion. I submitted the letter and promptly forgot about it. A week or so later, there it was, filling the entirety of the back page, big as life, with a tagline pulled from the text and everything. Hmmm, I thought, this is pretty cool! I wonder what it would be like to be a writer, or to, maybe, publish an independent newspaper. Or even, better yet, publish an opinion paper focused solely on issue-laden dialog. No news. No flames and no trolls. Only the weighty opinions of the populace.
I had a name for it, too: The Opinion Pole.
However, newspaper publishing is not for the faint of heart. The manufacturing aspects of the analog world require a full-time commitment and this idea simply migrated over to the pile of other discarded ideas that have occupied my waking moments over the years. I was/am a software engineer. The digital world is my trade and playground, and I have been blessed to live in times like these.
Over time the Internet has, of course, made it possible to self-publish without relying on the analog world. However, as I matured, I found that I had little to say. Family and work responsibilities had replaced chess board ruminations. Plus, I shied away from the vanity of my youth. As weblogs sprouted up like so many mushrooms, some insightful, many others woefully not, I declined to fill the void with yet more anecdotes. While I may find my life interesting, when I’m not doing yardwork or other such stuff, others will not. Added to that was the growing fact that making one’s blog popular and linkable required a lot of work, work I was not interested in doing for the sake of jotting notes and showing strangers some hiking pictures.
In January, 2003, my 2 year old son was diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder. My wife and I had known for some time that his development had been delayed as he’d received a preliminary evaluation from the Early Intervention services of Massachusetts. However, the official diagnosis, though expected on some level, was difficult. Our lives changed drastically from that point onward. Packs of therapists, of various skill levels, descended upon our home, when they could make it. His integration into the public school system was both rewarding and challenging. It seemed to be either feast or famine at various points. Talented therapists would work with him, then they’d get transferred. Others, of marginal skill, were replaced. School-provided services would range from being excellent to simply vanishing and/or be of such mediocre quality as to be completely useless. Somehow, in spite of these fits and starts, my son, though still delayed in some areas, has made decent progress.
In late December, 2003, another dear friend, Chris Sousa, introduced me to the Barscape forum. A sci-fi fanatic, who had also introduced me to blogs a couple of years earlier via Stephen Den Beste’s USS Clueless site, he suggested that I register and get to know some great people on-line, even if I wasn’t a Farscape fan (yet). On a lark, I did so and it proved to be an enriching experience. Not only did it give me a place to socialize, but it allowed me to find my voice again. Once more, I could discuss topics and reacquaint myself with the world at large. They were/are the greatest bunch of people I’ve ever met, without ever meeting them.
Some months after joining Barscape, Kim Miller, another Barscaper, suggested that I give writing a try. She invited me to another forum, a predecessor to the Wonderous Stories forum in the Blogroll, and I started writing some fiction. After receiving some favorable responses, I was hooked. I found that I had more to say.
A few months ago, my wife and I joined the local SpedPAC, Special Education Parent Advisory Committee. In so doing, we met many other parents with children with special needs, all of whom had interesting and difficult stories to tell about the services they were receiving. Or trying to, in some cases.
It was two such stories, related to me by my wife this past weekend, that finally tipped the scales toward writing a blog. Over the years, I’ve seen what blogs can do in regards to getting information into the mainstream of public discourse. These stories, our stories, our kids’ stories need to be told. Sitting quietly in the stands hoping for change will not do the work that our children require of us. The special ed community at large cannot do the work alone, either. It will take a mainstream effort to make permanent, meaningful improvements and the way to do that is to, first, be heard and, second, belong.
This blog is a part of step #1. Getting to this point in my life took a combination of sore kneecaps and various thought streams. All of them private.
Until now.
Welcome.