The Puzzle Piece
Friday, August 15, 2008 @9:31:46 AM
We all know the puzzle piece is used as our international logo. That single, solitary puzzle piece is know to us all as that unitary symbol of who we are. However I have yet to have anybody explain to me with satisfaction exactly what the puzzle piece is supposed to symbolize.
Maybe it is me, maybe it is my Aspie sensibilites and my preponderance for misunderstanding what is commonly considered to be conspicous, but i am not confident in my grasp of what it is that the puzzle is supposed to indicate.
This leads to my own understanding of what it is that the puzzle piece is emblematic of. I feel we in the spectrum are capable of thinking outside the box and the way in which we think is different from the entire picture so we are in essence the entire picture in and of our solitarty puzzle piece.
I feel the piece standing alone lets us know that we are are that one key piece in the conundrum of society. The mozaic that makes up out pluralistic society is presently incomplete and in need of just one more bit of inclusiveness to conclude the process. And just whom might that person be?What does that missing element resemble? Us on the ASD.
Now you might think the missing puzzle piece would be symbolic of the mystery of those on the spectrum and how our thoughts and actions stands outside the pantheon of human wisdom. This kind of mindset is what somebody might conclude if they watch our sesnsibilities from afar and attempt to affix understanding of who we are from the standpoint of the so called Neuro-typical mind. Such a conclusion around which we are judged by and understood is biased and incomplete because it is the speculation of somebody from afar attempting to know a person that is created differently and the context of the ASD world has never been taken into consideration.
Autism culture is not supposed to exist. Therefore we are deemed to be a mystery and afixed a puzzle piece by those who struggle to figure out how we fit into society. I know that the word has it's etiology in the root of isolation. I realize that solitude is part of our nature but we should not be thought of as being outside of the whole picture of life.
Austistic individuals are a part of the human family; An unique and critically creative aspect of the human portrait but still a part. We have our own way of doing things but we are not a mystery because to be so would mean we will always be misunderstood and underutelized.
We are that key piece but we are slowly coming to an awareness, an universal understanding of who we are in the human family and when this occurs, we will not be solitary but a shining piece within the puzzle as a whole. I look forward to when we fit in and I know it is not far away.
Until then maybe we should think of the puzzle piece as symbolizing how we need to piece our way through life as we make sense of a social network not developed to use our unique talents.
