The price that is exacted from those of us


who appear to have ‘more’ than others? Is that we must give it away. We have more demands placed on us, the expectations are higher, because it is *perceived*, by others, that we are – more capable? our shoulders are broader, or stronger? That we can *handle* it.

Well, they’re often wrong. Often, our needs are *just as great, if not greater*, than their own.

So even though we’re ‘different’? We’re really just the same: Still human. Still needy. Still greedy and selfish and in need of some – general edification? – about life. Usually we call this education ‘experience’. School of life.

But still, we pay. The ‘gifted’ among us – we pay in blood, in sweat, in tears. In fear of leaving the house – execution? persecution? witch hunts, witch trials. Superstition. You name it, it’s all been done before. New name? same face, same ‘wickedness’ born out of fear of that which is – unknown? and ‘different’.

Clan of the Cave Bear, again – when H. Upright met Short and Grumpy for the first time, face to face, they could not recognize each other as human. HU had *water* falling from its eyes, for Ugg’s sake. Whereas Grumpy couldn’t see the forest for the trees, and was perceived as ‘stupid’ (though he had certain advantages, such as that of not being distracted by ‘messy’ things like emotions.)

Returning to my *original* thought, which was about autism, Tourette’s and other labels: Often slapped onto highly intelligent people, who don’t ‘fit it’ because – we see too clearly? Are *unable* to blot out, blank out, and *escape* in the ways so-called ‘normal’ people take for granted?

Or – leap – perhaps ‘normal’ is actually aberrant? as in, a ‘flawed’ adaption (I know, that’s a *judgment* - *all* adaptations, are, by definition, ‘beneficial’??? maybe.)

But the current so-called ‘normal’ developed out of a long, *long* stretch of stressful times. During which, much of what is *good* and lovable about humanity – its softness, its compassion for other beings, its connection with each other and the planet at large – was stripped away in favor of a leaner (?), meaner fighting machine that wouldn’t be swayed or influenced by such ‘irrelevancies’.

And many of us *accept* these labels, almost gratefully, because they are our ‘ticket’, our passport? to ‘polite’ society. Where we cut off entire segments of our beings for the sake of ‘fitting in’, having a place to belong. We are, after all, social beings – it’s an actual basic need, such as eating and sleeping (see Maslow).