[100 days of 100 words] 22/100

Impressions of a day, in no order:

Cleaners and estimates. Dreams of talk and touch fulfilled. Dishes. A long rehearsal without our fearless leader. Waiting. Learning to embroider. A late-night glass of wine. Talks with loved ones. An upsetting rejection letter, but a good interview.

My lovers are all exhausted. My housemate’s boyfriend makes a killer lamb chop. Feta cheese is one of the things that makes life worth living.

Holst may be the world’s most underrated composer. I now know more about binding breasts than I ever hoped to.

I hope my Feri Camp registration gets in on time.

[100 days of 100 words] 23/100

The sky is full of strange qualities. From inside the subway station, the air outside looks so thick that it seems it’s raining. But no: it’s just that the entire world has been given a warm grey wash with a furry paintbrush, and set atop a mighty hill, teetering to bluster at any moment with the fury of Thor.

Now the air crackles; now the breeze is teasing and light; now is not just the possibility but the certainty of sky-violence – but not yet. Not yet.

Like a creature of light waiting for the dawn, I await the first crash.

Autism

This article, exploring the "difference model" of autism (as opposed to the disease model), seems like one of the more important things I've read in a really long time.

In a synthesized voice generated by a software application, [Amanda Baggs, a severe autistic,] explains that touching, tasting, and smelling allow her to have a "constant conversation" with her surroundings. These forms of nonverbal stimuli constitute her "native language," Baggs explains, and are no better or worse than spoken language. Yet her failure to speak is seen as a deficit, she says, while other people's failure to learn her language is seen as natural and acceptable.