We live in a culture where everyone decorates their cars with their personal causes.  In years like this one, political bumper stickers abound.  In the neighborhood where we live, religious themed bumper stickers are more commonly seen.  All over town, you see magnetic decals for sports teams and pet causes.

It’s against that backdrop that the wife and I have been debating whether or not we should put something for autism on our cars.

I know, in the grand scheme, it’s not that big of a deal.

It’s not like we’re ashamed that we have an autistic son, or that folks who know us don’t know, or that we don’t openly talk about it when we’re out and about and the Monster is being how he can be sometimes.  For the longest time, though, there’s just been something about putting a decal, magnet or sticker on our car that seems… uncomfortable.  Maybe it’s because there’s something about those ribbons and whatnot that says to the world at large that there’s a personal connection to whatever it is, and that’s a scary step to take.  Alternatively, it might also be the fact that it could, potentially, be a conversation starter with strangers in a parking lot and neither of us is sure we want that.

Deciding to start a blog is, comparatively, an insignificant toe in the water, as it were – folks who know me and find this through my Twitter or Facebook pages already know us and that we have an autistic child, and I’ve found online, folks aren’t quite so weirdly curious as they can be in real life.

Working on the blog, though, has made me think about the car decal again.  We had a conversation this past weekend while we were out getting family portraits done, and I’m considering getting one.  Maybe I’ve just come around to deciding that if someone does ask a question, or look at it in a parking lot, or something, it might be better than autism being just something they hear about on the news…

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Okay, so a few other things.

I want to send a big shout-out to my cousin, who has kindly registered a domain for this blog.  I’ll be moving the blog over to self-hosting sometime next week (when I have some time to finish setting it up there), and I’ll publicize the URL at that time.

Also, I’m setting up a separate Twitter account for my autism related tweets (@dadenoughblog), just to separate it out from the rest of the noise that comes from me that’s not related to this.  Feel free to follow it.

Thanks for reading!