Special interests, a thread for #AutismAcceptanceMonth . Currently, I’m playing piano for 1-2 hours a day. It’s been three weeks. I guess this is my new special interest, and that’s okay. Special interests are a gift. Let me explain. 1/10

When my brain latches into an interest, it is not fleeting. It is consuming in the best way, structures my free time toward a goal the pursuit of which is a pleasure in itself, and produces enduring skills/knowledge. These are all good things. 2/10

Some recreational special interests I have had: screwball comedy in Golden Age Hollywood; knitting; yoga; running; goth/industrial/new wave music; web design; photography; calligraphy. These have been hobbies whose intensities rise and fall. 3/10

Other special interest have been work related: social media; design studies; critical disability studies; critical race studies; student centered pedagogy; writing pedagogy; style. I am unstoppable when in the grips of one idea. Then move on. 4/10

I used to feel bad about the consuming intensity of my interests. My every-free-moment, no stone unturned, 360 degree appetite for everything about it. It was weird. Other people weren’t like this. It felt obsessive. 5/10

And also: it felt flaky. From 2008-2017, I was obsessed with yoga. Certified as a teacher. Taught multiple times per week. Then stopped. I have a much more bare bones practice now. I felt fickle. All my interests have been like this. 6/10

But I’m rethinking. My current obsession, whatever it is, doesn’t harm anyone in any way except I talk too much about it. Sometimes it makes me healthier and sometimes it helps at work. There’s not much downside to the intensity. 7/10

And flaky? I focused on yoga for almost a decade. And I get to keep everything I’ve learned. Knitting? I made a lot of nice things for people and it’s a skill keep returning to, periodically. Even if the intensity wanes, I keep all the skills and knowledge. 8/10

It’s not like I go out and buy a piano on a whim, bash at it for three weeks and give up. All my interests in all their intensity and obsessive attention and eventual attenuation? Gave me things I got to keep, and reactivate when I want, if I want. 9/10

The thing is, I’m never bored. I always have some kind of special interest. It keeps me busy and happy and searching and engaged and growing. It might look weird and obsessive and then flaky to others. But it’s not. 10/10