Raw talent. You hear a lot about “natural” talent, or “raw” talent. It can’t be learned, and it can’t be taught. When it comes to the nature versus nurture debate, I’m firmly on both sides. I’m looking for a quintessence, a je ne se qua, that quality of having “it” that you often can’t define except by its lack.
“The specialist found that the 8-percent curvature of her spine is NOT due to scoliosis after all. It turns out that one of her legs is measurably longer than the other.” “They can tell that from an endoscopy?”
OK kid. Turn your damn lights on if you’re reading, your eyes are bad enough already. Don’t stay up too late, and don’t make any noise. Daddy needs plausible deniability, OK? “OK Daddy!” And we just don’t talk about why all my kids could define “plausible deniability” before they could write their names.
But then, if I’d really not wanted to engage in this kind of conversation, I shouldn’t have let them watch Joan Rivers.
As a parent of Number One Son, I watch Temple Grandin with some degree of awe; she’s not just interacting with society, and she’s not just interacting with society very successfully – she’s helping to reshape society to better interact with her, on her own terms.