Wyatt

Wyatt

His body was realigned while his brain tried to reroute essential services.

We were never given the details of how or why Wyatt had a stroke at such a young age.

Besides the obvious damage to his brain, it affected the right side of his body.

His right foot folded in and his spatial abilities on his right side were challenged.

It took me a while to realize, as he became older, the reason he kept his right hand in his pocket was for balance.

He did have an operation on his foot and a brace put on so he could walk without his right foot hitting his left leg.

After the operation he could run…and run and run.

“You know, that guy with the mechanical arm.” I ask.

“Stan Sebastian.” He answers.

His brain can file and regurgitate any information of any action movie he watches. He is also a movie trailer junkie and memorizes all release dates of everything he watches, including all the actors in them.

I sit and try to imagine what is going on in a mind, that can arrange itself daily for survival but isn’t able to access critical thinking.

When Wyatt first came to us, I could see him scan his environment in social settings and then look at his youngest brother to see what the appropriate response should be. His youngest brother was his social Sherpa. He has learned that the wrong response is dangerous, and I can see him panic when any casual conversation is focused on him directly.

You are asking someone without legs to walk…but still, movement is possible.

The information he receives is broken down into digestible bits of brain food. When there is a pause, data is being thrown out. I can feel his brain switch to default mode. This offers him three options. Run away, yell or change the topic. He has figured out how to pause and rearrange the details of his conversation when realizes, by looking at your face, that he isn’t making sense. So, in way, his brain is learning to adapt to social expectations.

I’ve learned to view his brain in a horizontal level, rather then a vertical one.

We are trained to see everything vertically, which attaches itself to hierarchy of social expectations. Expectations that discriminate against brains that are not built the same way. As a result, the people housing these brains are marginalized.

This is societies loss.

People like Wyatt thrive in an environment that loosens the limitations of their social and intellectual expectations. Rather then forcing them to navigate our world we need to focus on learning how to navigate theirs.

Wyatt’s mind is an interesting place filled with beautiful and fascinating perspectives that only he can see. Getting him to express these views is a matter of safety and paying attention. This takes time and it takes patients. Something our world has very little of.

It only takes one person to listen.

I try to be that person, but I am also fighting against everything he deals with from everyone else.

How he is corrected.

How he is shamed.

How he is bullied.

How he is taught.

How he is loved.

His life will be filled with people who do not have the time to slow down. To enjoy the things that he says that are both hilarious and insightful. His view of life is tilted in a way only he understands.

That can get kind of lonely…and scary.

The quality of our existence is affected by our ability to absorb and interact with those who enter our timeline. They are not just visitors; they are us and we are them. I do not see Wyatt as a lesser being that needs to be helped, I see him as part of my human experience and me, as his.