There is a new ad for autism awareness that shows a guy saying things like: “My friend’s kid has autism”, “My neighbor’s kid has autism”, etc., as he gets older and older with each time he speaks, and finally he says: “My kid has autism.” By the time he says his kid has it, he’s all gray-haired and old-looking; so naturally I assumed that this was an ad showing a guy finally coming to terms enough with his own child’s autism that he can finally admit that it’s actually his child, and not someone else’s, that has the condition. But then they show him hugging a young child as the 65-year-old guy! Zoinks!* So it’s clear that I had misread the message of the spot: it really was saying what he was saying literally, and the kid he was talking about the last time was in actuality his own child, but all the other kids he mentioned were really other people’s kids all along.
So the ad was actually saying that you always used to hear about people with kids who had autism, then you knew people with kids who had autism, then you lived next door to people with kids who had autism, then you had friends with kids who had autism, and then you have a kid with autism. So basically, it’s stalking you, and there’s no escape. Oh, and it will wait until you’re really old to do it. I kind of liked it better when I thought it was saying the other thing, which kind of suggested that it was something that people are finally coming to terms with and getting more aware of and ready to admit to and deal with, and that you’re not alone, and there’s help available. Well, okay, the real meaning also says you’re not alone, in that you’re going to have a kid with autism. But I still prefer the way it first seemed to me. Besides, what’s such an old man doing having kids at his age, anyway? I guess this is the curse of Viagra.
* (MS Word didn’t indicate that “Zoinks” was misspelled for almost 20 seconds! I was convinced that it must be a recognized word in the MS Word dictionary by the time it put the little red squiggly line underneath it. I like to think that since it’s Saturday night, MS Word is all liquored-up or stoned, and it was like: “Zoinks… Right: that’s that thing Shaggy always says on Scooby Doo. Of course that’s a real word. Heh, heh… Oh, wait! Shit, I still have a job to do! Uh, hold on a second… Okay, that’s right; it’s not really a word. I’ll just say it’s spelled wrong now and maybe they’ll never notice. Phew! I hope no-one was paying attention. Oh, hell, what do I care? It’s Saturday night! They’re lucky I haven’t infected their hard drive yet, anyway. Nerds!” I doubt that’s what really happened, but a man can dream…)
