Lives Like Mine
Some people's lives are as cold as their lips; they just need to be kissed.
My name is Jorin; it's a Spanish-Hebrew name. I have Asperger's syndrome, named for Hans Asperger. Names are very important to me.
I first learned Janis Ian's name through Dragonwriter, a book of essays on science-fiction writer Anne McCaffrey.
Janis Ian came from a Jewish, leftist family. During her childhood, said family was under the suspicious eye of the U.S. government, which inspired her album "god and the fbi".
When I learned that she was playing at my local theater, I instantantly told my mom I had to go. Lucky for me, she said yes, and Janis Ian changed my life.
Unlike other singers, Janis writes her own lyrics. You can tell that songs like "Society's Child", "At Seventeen" and "Resist!" are from her own experience.
I may not be female, but her words in "At Seventeen" resound in my heart: Those of us with ravaged faces/Lacking in the social graces/Inventing lovers on the phone/Repenting other lives unknown...
I as perhaps 10 years old when my life was overturned. I lived quietly with my parents and siblings, until strangers came and forced us to live more publicly.
See, my mom was my teacher. I didn't know kids went to school to be taught by unknown adults; home schooling was all I knew.
I was totally unprepared for the chaos that is public school. It drove me mad.
Kids everywhere! All talking a mile a minute, while I could hardly say a word.
I don't recall when I was diagnosed with autism. I was so overwhelmed by the noise, sometimes I'd cut classes just to be alone. No one had to tell me to read; if anything, I'd have to be told to stop reading!
Through books, I met wonderful people like Brian Jacques, Margaret McAllister...and the Dragon Lady herself: Anne McCaffrey of Ireland.
And Anne taught me, through her words, never to give up. To fight for myself. To learn to, in the words of the Bible, love my neighbour as myself.
I'm still working on the whole love thyself bit; Janis Ian's heavenly music helps.