So yesterday was, of course, the anniversary of 9-11 so I took on the Herculean task of trying to explain the event, feelings and aftermath to a seven and four year old because I thought they deserved to know. First I had to explain what a terrorist was before I could even get to the other things.
So Seth, who as most of you know, is a high functioning autistic, was just grinning at me as though the explanation of a terrorist was very, very amusing. I don’t think it had anything to do with what I was saying but never the less I made the mistake of saying, “Seth, this is serious.”
So from that point on his had this exaggeratedly tight face on like he has bathroom problems or something. Which is his “serious face.” Some of you may know that facial expressions are not the easiest thing for Aspie’s and much of what they produce has to be manufactured in their head because it doesn’t come natural to him. Meanwhile Evie is chewing on a My Little Pony and paying about as much attention as I pay to Mike’s martial arts movies.
So I first show pictures and explain about the World Trade Center, then the Pentagon, and finally that lonely field in Pennsylvania. By that point I am crying and Evie is looking a little concerned but Seth is staring at me like I just dropped in from the ceiling with six eyes and tentacles. I suddenly felt like, “This entire description has been lost in translation. He has no idea what I’m talking about.” I also felt suddenly like my grandfather trying to explain to me how devastating Pearl Harbor was when I was negative many years at the time.
So Seth looks at the screen where we are viewing a pile of twisted, smoking metal in a green field. Then he looks at me with tears streaming down my face and he says, “How many people died?” I said, “Altogether, about 3000.” He looks back at the screen and says, “Well, at least it wasn’t any of us.”
This message has definitely been lost in translation. Not only is it probably far too large and abstract a concept for an aspie to grasp but he was six months old at the time and didn’t really live through that horror. So I just thought what the heck, this is pointless. I will try again next year and sent them on their way.
I really don’t think Seth got much out of it. But Evie, curiously, heard more than she indicated. Later she brought me an add for some high rise apartments in South Carolina that just came for the people who lived here before us. She pointed to the buildings and said, “Are these the same buildings you were showing us yesterday (It was the same day, just much later) before they got broken?”
I was heartened to know that at least one of them was paying more attention than I thought. Maybe both of them were. How do you, or do you, try to share this with your kids?
Welcome to Anderson World 
