Write now

Apparently I haven't posted in four months. Wow. It isn't that I haven't been thinking about Sekai, or making notes of things to write about, things to research. I actually had many, many notes saved in my phone: quotes from TV, movies, books; findings from research studies; musings on interactions with others; questions that come to mind; and on and on. Then my cell phone--where I had kept a lot of notes--completely stopped working. Tonight, I discovered that the DVR that I was using to save the TV shows and movies that I wanted to write about has been completely wiped out. When my cell phone wiped out, a friend said maybe Sekai was trying to tell me to not say anything. I don't agree with that. To me, it was a reminder to do what needs to be done, and to not wait.

Yesterday, I had a serendipitous conversation with a woman in line at the shipping store as I was mailing off an application for a postdoctoral fellow. Her adult daughter has autism. I'm not exactly sure how or why she chose to start talking to me, but we ended up having a long conversation about autism in particular, disability in general, and how people are treated who have disabilities. No, I didn't tell her about Sekai, specifically. Her eyes were already red, and I was concerned that she was going to start crying about her own daughter, and since she said they had an important meeting the next day, I didn't want to upset her any more than she seemed to be already. But when she asked me why I was applying for a postdoc ("But you have a PhD. Why do you need to do that, too?"), I explained that by the time one gets to the dissertation, one's focus has to become more and more narrow, and this particular postdoc would give me the opportunity to widen my lens again, conduct research, teach, and write. She asked what I wanted to do with my work, and I told her. So yes, I did tell her about Sekai, because I told her how I want to make a difference for children who have disabilities.

At the end of our conversation, we both smiled, and shook hands. She seemed encouraged. I was as well, especially when she said, "It sounds like you're on your way to being a leader in changing the way people think." I hope so. In the meantime, I will keep thinking all of this through, and keep writing...and hopefully posting more.