Lessons in Losing

“Show me a good loser, and I’ll show you a loser,” said Vince Lombardi, famously. We don’t necessarily subscribe to that philosophy in our household, but both Veronica and I believe it is important to teach our kids to win and lose. We never believed in playing games until everyone won. We preferred to allow […]

Autism Something Month

I was going to avoid writing about Autism Awareness/Acceptance Month and World Autism Awareness Day altogether. I didn’t think I had anything worthwhile to add to the discourse, a lot of which disappoints me. I understand some of the divide in the autism community. When you have a disorder under a single umbrella that covers […]

Dancing Man

After Friday’s rocky start and somewhat better ending — including a mutual decision with Ryan’s psychiatrist to leave him completely off medication for now — we headed into the weekend with an open mind. Our plans included a family friend’s bar mitzvah and a Devils game on Saturday — an aggressive social calendar for us. […]

A Word About Order

Ryan carries many labels. Among them: Autism spectrum disorder. Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. Disorders. That word contained within, order, is so, so apt. So much of his life is about trying to create some order from all the noise. Sometimes, he does things in a different order. Other times, his actions are about Imposing some […]

Between Now and Then

Ryan sits on the living room couch, munching blueberry waffles that are completely plain, just the way he loves them. Amidst the pile of crumbs that accumulate, he is watching the previous night’s hockey highlights on NHL Network. He already knows all the scores — and the shots on goal totals — having checked them […]