Dear Ocate Cliffs family,
The last frost is over this past week and we’re open! We’ve had a dozen people camping here so far (keeping distance and cleaning regularly of course). Most of them say it’s breathtaking and peaceful, and there’s been a lot of laughing around the campfire. Here I am in the cafe as I type this…
When building a unique program that doesn’t fit people’s mental model of autism programs, I get conversations like this:
Person: I heard this is for autistic kids?
Me: Well it’s for older teens and adults, as staff.
Person: What you’re doing for those kids is so great.
For a lot of people, the mental model is that developmental disability affects only children and “we” do “services” for “them”. For some, that’s taken as a good thing, while others fear it could be a segregated institutional setting. Either way, it has been hard to clear away this we/they model from the conversation.
The reality is that the place is primarily wilderness and it is for humans to be ourselves with other humans and the rest of nature. It’s a retreat. You can be here a short time or a long time. You can be here without talking to anyone. There are no roles based on who you are and your labels. You don’t have to prove anything, be a role model or be the target of role modeling. The outcomes (to use non-profit-speak) are mainly un-measurable.
The autism niche mainly means that neurodiversity is under protection here in a more purposeful way than in most other places. People like me – who are too marginalized to be a contributor in most settings – can contribute here. It’s subtle and potentially powerful; I don’t know if it’s radical or if the model even has a name. Going against all the well-known models means there is no funding stream and no supporting political movement.
Speaking of politics, yesterday my friend Jen reminded me that white people remaining detached – when the nation is a tinderbox of pent-up rage in the grips of white supremacy – is a form of violence. I also believe the way we engage can be violent even if we are on the side of justice. My other friend Deer says activism is not accessible to them, and like me, they are not a side-taking, bandwaggon-jumping person; they are easily marginalized by the fight. It’s like being ironically tossed aside in the fight for “inclusion”. When someone says “What you’re doing for those kids is so great” (when I’m not doing anything in particular for kids), I sense it could be rooted in the same place as racial supremacy because they both assume there is a “them”. I want to be engaged but I shy away from engagement along those lines of division and do not know what other way to be engaged now so I’m uncomfortably detached.
When people find this place peaceful amidst the tinderbox all around us, I wonder if there is something inherently more peaceful about meadows and cliffs and aspen groves, or if those things awaken the mind’s eye to see the peace within us. Retreating and engaging are opposites and may also be the same.
In service,
Star Ford, Program Manager