Like many kids of this generation, J-Boy is a video game fanatic, always with a handheld gaming device on his person, that device usually on and in use, his head bent down and his longish, Junior High hair hanging forward helping to block any glare on the screen (and, perhaps, any glare from his mother...). Somehow the stimulation is calming to him. Maybe it drowns out all other stimulation that can be overwhelming, especially to a person with autism.
I know that this obsession is not an "autism" thing. Or a "kid" thing. Put the portable gaming system into the more general category of "handheld technology" and there are many, many an adult who can't or won't disconnect from their various iThings during any lull in the day's flow of activity.
I was driving J-Boy to school the other morning and as we pulled out of the driveway he flipped open his 3DS and the battery died before we were a block away from the house. We didn't have time to go back for him to grab a charger or his PSP-Go (I know, he's kinda spoiled) as a back up plan. So I knew we needed to use the drive time to strategize how his day would go when he got free time during at school that he would usually spend pacifying himself with video games.
To my relief, he seemed positive and calm. We quietly drove along, listening to the radio. Then he started a conversation:
J-Boy: "Mom, I think I know how music was invented, and I think it is genius."
Me: "Oh, yeah? Tell me!"
J-Boy: "Well, sometimes when I'm bored, I will just start tapping with my fingers and it gets sort of, like, into a rhythm. And I think that's how it got started, by someone just being bored. Then someone was playing around with some string and figured out that if you pluck it when it is different lengths then it'll make different sounds."
Ooo! Knock, knock! Opportunity, here!
While trying to keep it conversational, I went into a little dissertation on boredom, the importance of boredom, the luxury of boredom, the skill required to be "productively bored."
We discussed Early Man and his trecherous day-to-day fight for survival, how exhausting that must have been. And before fire, how long and scary those nights could have been. Early Man did not have the luxury of boredom; there is not really "down time" when life itself must be protected and fought for each day.
We talked about how as humans gained skills and made discoveries, tools, and inventions they gained some efficiency in meeting life's basic needs, allowing time for play, art, music, and even more tools and invention.
J-Boy found humor in the irony that this talk about boredom started because he was bored. But he seemed to understand that giving the mind a break from constant occupation and stimulatory input would allow some of the information in there a chance to digest and perhaps grow into different or even bigger ideas and thoughts. He seemed to "get" that one should feel very lucky to experience boredom because it must mean that all their other needs are being met.
Now, I'm not sure if this last bit was meant to be a genuine compliment, or a crack about me sitting around on my A#% all day, but as he gets out of the car at school he says to me,
"Mom, you live very efficiently. Bye!"
Well, thanks to many a modern invention, yes, yes I do.
