Why I wear blue

Please, please excuse the spacing issue. I tried to insert some squigglies to improve readability, but I'm not sure it's helpful at all.~~~It's not about politics.~~~It's not about Autism Speaks.~~~It's not about awareness (just ask Jess over at Diary of a Mom). ~~~ It's not about treatments. ~~~ Or cures. ~~~ Or not-cures. ~~~ It's not about yesterday. ~~~ Or tomorrow. ~~~It's about today. What can we do today to bring people to greater acceptance of those who are, well, a little different? What can we do today so that one little boy or girl won't be called weirdo, freak, or the r-word (yes, I've been called them all and more). What can we do today to make it okay for children and adults, on the spectrum or not, to like what they truly like and do what they truly enjoy? ~~~ It's about Riley, and Brooke, and Hallie, and Ollie, and Chloe, and Kate, , and Bear, and Scrumpy and the thousands of children and adults on the message board whose names I don't all know, and yes, it's about me.~~~ But it's also about you. It's about my mom, and Leigh, and Heather, and Chloe again because she has the unique experience of having autism and knowing someone with it, and the people who work with me, and my pastor, and Sister. It's about real life friends and online friends and those (Chloe, Molly, Kate, Amanda, Michelle) who are gloriously and perfectly both, all at once.~~~It's about giving us a voice who can't always, or ever, or reliably speak for ourselves. Those of us to have no words, or use PECS, or sign, or type, or have some words, or sometimes have words but sometimes don't, or have tons and tons of words but can't use them in a way that other people can understand us. Or those of us for whom more than one of those are true.~~~It's about acceptance. It's about hope. It's about friendship, and motherhood, and fatherhood, and sisterhood, and brotherhood. It's about the fact that you believe that I am worth it. Because I am. And you are. Your child is.~~~ So this is why I wear blue, both today and tomorrow. I can't change my bulbs, but I can wear it, and my back says "Ask me why I'm wearing BLUE." So far, no one has asked, though I will say that I spent most of the day so far with my back in a chair against the wall. Half the people at partial wore blue. My therapist wore blue. My pastor will wear blue. My friends will wear blue. My mother will wear blue (because I won't let her leave the house otherwise!).~~~ Feel free to snap a photo and send it to me of your blue. I'd love to have a little mini compilation of people in blue shirts on my blog... but I can only do it if you wear blue!