Our greatest challenge is also our greatest gift, and vice versa.
Yep. In this case, at least.
It's fairly obvious that my husband is himself Asperger's, although back in the day it was just "Lenny being weird Lenny." Even educated people were not aware of this concept in the 60s or 70s, when we were children.
Even as far as the 90s and early 00s (when my son was born), I don't remember that much was talked about autism except for low-functioning autism. Granted, France is 20 years late in autism awareness/understanding compared to the rest of the world, but even on the internet, I can't remember there being the kind of low-level general awareness that there's now. For example: I was in the very early Harry Potter fandom, and we certainly discussed the possibility of various conditions affecting various characters - but I can't remember HFA or Asperger's ever being mentioned.
It can sometimes seem like there is some kind of bandwagon or fashionability surrounding the spectrum causing the thoughtless comments that have upset Aliax so, but some of that is the bubbling up of awareness of the topic.
Very well said. I totally understand that to some - especially in the younger crowd who can't remember a time when Asperger was not a common word on the internet - this "bubbling up of awareness" might look like nothing more than a fashion effect, but the truth is that there are untold numbers of adults out there who grew up being "weird", and who learned to compensate to some degree and at various prices in energy and to their self-esteem and/or social life, and who are incredibly relieved to discover that not only are they not alone in their struggles, but there's a name to describe their difference, and techniques to help with the most bothersome aspects of it. For people like me who've literally spent decades wondering, "What the heck is WRONG with me D: !?", that's a HUGE discovery to make!
Many people try to parse new information by relating it to themselves, hence the continuing popularity of self-analysis quizzes. Unfortunately, taking that information in that format usually leads to a flawed or downright incorrect understanding.
Ha, yes. Funnily enough, it *was* a self-analysis quizz which made me realise what was "wrong" with me - not by telling me "You're most likely neurodivergent" (which it did, but, well, self-analysis quizz...), but by making me realise that what I had always thought was "normal", what I had always tried to become, was in fact still very, VERY far away from what "normal" people actually consider "normal". Being neurotypical is so foreign to me, I had literally been unable to imagine it except as something extreme and abnormal. Talk about an "... Oh" moment :/ That was when I finally understood why my then-husband was so often so lost when confronted to some of our son's reactions, when to me they were so logical and easy to understand even though I'd never had them myself...
What I really like about Minna's depiction of Lalli is that we see his fraught exchanges with individuals, but also the intense beauty of his working magecraft. The calm, confidence and balance he shows at those times is amazing.
Yes! I know someone (you?) made that same reflection somewhere earlier in this thread, but I'm really struck by how much pride Lalli takes in being the best scout possible and yet *still* can't "use his words" when doing his scout reports - but when it comes to runo spells, the words just flow without a hitch. And we know he's not just reciting spells he learned by heart, either; at the very least, he's able to spontaneously adapt a previous spell to his current circumstances, as with the Moon Spell.
Even better: it took Tuuri insisting three times before he finally blurted out, "I'm tired", but he freely and easily expressed his fears and confusion to Kuutar in the Moon Spell. Or during the radio episode: he had no troubles switching from politely asking the bothering spirits to move further away, to threatening to come after them if they kept pissing him off - but when it comes to expressing his emotions to other human beings, he's still stuck with using onomatopeias and the little body language he knows to express.
The contrast is absolutely fascinating to me! I feel like Minna couldn't have made it any more obvious that being a mage is what Lalli IS, while scouting is what Lalli DOES. One is his nature, the other is his job - and I absolutely love, love, LOVE that he doesn't see himself as having any obligation to reconcile the two somehow. He could most likely be a full-time mage if he wanted to, but scouting is the job he likes, so he apparently prefers to forgo magic training in order to keep being a scout (and I can only imagine Onni's feelings about *that*).
