This cartoon would have appeared last week, but Real Life (TM) demanded my attention, so it now appears this week. Enjoy!

Like many people I know, I would classify myself among the neurodivergent. I have ADHD that went undiagnosed until well into my forties, and I have developed tools and habits to manage it. So I still feel new to the term and what “divergent” implies about a norm, a standard, that we call “neurotypical.” I think it’s easier to define ADHD or Autism — broad categories each containing a spectrum of individual experiences, behaviors and conditions — than it is define a neurotypical condition without referencing a neurodivergent one in the negative:

“I’m neurotypical.”
“How do you know?”
“I’m not depressed.”

Not very satisfying. But still we seem to “get” what the term means. I think that is because we live in a world designed to serve people with no — or at least the bare minimum of — disabilities. Or, really, our systems and institutions serve those who are wealthy or powerful enough to be able to disguise their challenges behind a personal assistant, a chauffeur, or an air of eccentricity. And like so many people who do well in a game made for them, such folks have a hard time understanding the struggles of those less privileged than they are. Or caring about it, making the mislabeling of autistic people as “lacking empathy” all the more cruelly ironic.

As they lift masking policies and force people back to the office or campus (or campus office), regardless of the risks posed to students, workers, their families and anyone else in a high risk category. But that’s a cartoon for another time.

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