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One of the wonders in discovering I am autistic ( #aspie) and destined to be #Orthodox, in parallel, is the fact that, as a Westerner, I rediscovered my heart so quickly. This is a miracle story, but it also has to do with #autism and #Orthodoxy.
Backstory for those who missed the older (now-deleted) tweets: A month or so before I fully committed to Orthodoxy, I discovered, after observing a close family member who had been diagnosed with high-functioning ASD, the dreaded truth:
I had all of the same symptoms, line for line.
All of the dots connected, immediately, into one frightening picture.
All of the dots connected, immediately, into one frightening picture.
I wondered if it was a death sentence.
Instead, it proved to bring great joy, life, and peace.
Eventually.
Instead, it proved to bring great joy, life, and peace.
Eventually.
The confusing thing about Orthodoxy, among many confusing things, for Westerners, is the reliance upon the heart, rather than the head, for knowledge. To the rational, calculating, inquiring, analyzing, perpetually-churning Western mind, Eastern Orthodoxy makes no sense.
I kind of discovered I my heart by accident, the other day, when I told Siri to play a certain podcast, and she ‘misunderstood’ and ‘accidentally’ played a talk by Priestmonk Kosmas (talk 27, here: https://www.orthodoxtalks.com/about-us/ )">https://www.orthodoxtalks.com/about-us/...
Together with some other teaching, I discovered that what I had thought was a weakness and a flaw, was actually my best gift, given to me by God: my unswerving, fierce devotion to Him.
I just wasn’t taught that that was a good thing, you see.
I just wasn’t taught that that was a good thing, you see.
Throughout my life, the worst temptation for me, has been the admonition to ‘slow down’, ‘take it easy’, and ‘relax’. ‘A little compromise won’t hurt.’
Wrong.
Wrong.
Alas, my worst lessons in life were taught to me by my father. I feel a little at liberty to discuss this here, as most of you don’t know my name:
1. Lying, stealing, and cheating is OK, as long as it doesn’t hurt anyone.
1. Lying, stealing, and cheating is OK, as long as it doesn’t hurt anyone.
2. Secular music isn’t all bad. As long as you know you shouldn& #39;t do drugs, have premarital sex, or engage in New Age practices, it’s fine.
3. Fooling around before marriage is OK, just don’t go too far. (No, I’m not going to define ‘too far’ for you—you should know these things, my undiagnosed autistic son who doesn’t understand the concepts of subtlety or context, so go ask your undiagnosed autistic mother.)
4. ‘Pornography is OK, but...what’s that, dear? Well, you let me keep the Playboys in the nightstand [where our pre-teen son would discover them later and suffer from pornography addiction for over 30 years]...
‘...OK, fine, I’ll tell him. Son, your mother says pornography is not OK. So...yeah, just do what she says. I don’t understand it either. Women, amirite?’ *wink*
And, the most fatal cut of all:
5. Worshiping Jesus is fine, just don’t go too far with it. You’ve got to enjoy your life.
5. Worshiping Jesus is fine, just don’t go too far with it. You’ve got to enjoy your life.
I love my father dearly, and am forever grateful to God for his strong presence in my life (many boys cannot say that), but his shortcomings dealt me many years of harm.
#Aspies (I love that word) are loved and hated and feared for our tendency towards obsession.
If an autistic child is reared properly, with firm, kind discipline, and given the right therapy at the right times, he can become an unstoppable warrior for Christ.
If an autistic child is reared properly, with firm, kind discipline, and given the right therapy at the right times, he can become an unstoppable warrior for Christ.
Autistic people are basically the polar opposite from sociopaths.
Sociopaths know what they are doing, they just don’t care.
Autistic people often don’t know what they are doing, because autism is so reviled and misunderstood, and we care, very, very, very deeply.
Sociopaths know what they are doing, they just don’t care.
Autistic people often don’t know what they are doing, because autism is so reviled and misunderstood, and we care, very, very, very deeply.
Here is a practical example from this week: shopping carts. Everyone knows that it is no big deal to just stash it wherever, right?
Wrong.
Wrong.
To my conscience, if I do not put the cart away in a stall, it is almost as if I have deliberately ran over the neighbor’s dog with my car.
‘What kind of psycho would kill his neighbor’s dog on purpose?’
I don’t know, perhaps the same kind that would leave shopping carts ‘wherever’, to block parking spaces and scratch people’s cars? ;)
I don’t know, perhaps the same kind that would leave shopping carts ‘wherever’, to block parking spaces and scratch people’s cars? ;)
I am joking here, slightly. To the autistic mind, neurotypicals basically seem like sociopaths, or worse. We do not understand why you do the things you do.
Here is a thoughtful article that ‘flips the script’, analyzing the NTs as the ones with the disorder: https://troycamplin.medium.com/a-pathological-look-at-neurotypical-behavior-ee77d41e7e81">https://troycamplin.medium.com/a-patholo...
How does all this have to do with #Orthodoxy? I’m glad you asked. Let’s take a look at practical repentance.
To ‘repent’ is to listen to instruction, and make the conscious decision to correct your path, righting the wrong.
To ‘repent’ is to listen to instruction, and make the conscious decision to correct your path, righting the wrong.
In my teens and twenties, I dealt with several addictions: though I was spared drugs or alcohol, my addiction to food, pornography, and music, were worse.
Twitter is saying I have to post this thread before I can add more tweets. Back in a sec.
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