Awesome Autism
A book I recently stumbled upon, by Neil Pasricha, is a great tool that can help us live in rever-ential astonishment. It is called The Book of Awesome. The author depicts so many mundane and ordi-nary events and experiences of life as AWESOME. Every mini-chapter in the book ends with the word Awesome! The book is described as a “high five for humanity and a big celebration of life’s little mo-ments.” It shows how so many experiences we usually call awful can be seen as awesome.
I have a special affinity for the word awesome because it is my son Johnny’s most favorite word. He repeats that word at least two dozen times a day. He is a 21 year old young man with the mind-set and manners of a three year old. He is pure innocence incarnated, with the beauty of an an-gel’s heart. Johnny cannot bear the thought of anyone around him being sad or disagreeable. He has to make sure that people who interact with him—his parents, his brother, teachers, friends, neighbors—are always okay. He will look into their eyes and say awesome, and until they respond with awesome, he is not going to leave them alone. Awesome is the word that calms…show more content… The biggest lesson Johnny has taught me is that in order to be happy, you don’t need much, and that a person only needs to be happy in his or her world. We should not cut and paste our ideas of happiness into other people’s worlds. Johnny’s world is a limited one that contains his parents, his school, his church, Publix supermarket, Target store, library, french fries, chicken nuggets and soda. He doesn’t need the fastest car or the cutest girlfriend or the latest gadgets. He never argues or whines, obeys instantly and is a pleasure to be around. He is just an awesome kid (man) with an awesome life. Being around Johnny raises my level of contentment and gratitude for everything in life. Johnny helps me to see my life as awesome