A fascinating article about trains and autism in the New York Times got me thinking about the ways we each try to make sense of a nonsensical world.
The article profiles an autistic 5 year old named Ravi who has an amazing command of train and bus schedules. He, his older brother and mother visit the New York Transit Museum weekly because “People with autism have difficulty processing and making sense of the world, so they are drawn to predictable patterns, which, of course, trains run by”.
The article also quotes the museum’s assistant director, who said she had been besieged by field trip requests from schools that serve children with autism, so she established a program that indulged the young people’s need to dig deeply into the details of routes and timetables while also offering a chance to build social skills.
One parent said her child finds trains especially soothing, and he gets upset when they are not on schedule. Apparently one very effective bridge between loving trains and developing social skills is an old favorite – Thomas the Tank Engine. But a word of caution – if you’re comforted by vehicles that have to stay on their proscribed path, this mini-episode is bound to be unsettling.
Only on children’s TV is the idea of a locomotive crashing into a house made infinitely worse by the undeniable fact that a collapsing plaster wall can ruin your breakfast. Some calamities are too big to take in – you have to view them through a lens that minimized the damage. Perhaps this is how Tim Pawlenty feels today.
But it does make some sense that any person who has a hard time adapting to quick, unannounced change might find a bit of happiness in the carefully planned environment that’s on display in a transit museum.
Where do you like to go when things feel out of control?
Trail Baboon 
i head for the bathtub.a cup of tea or a glass f wine and some tunes is the answer to trying to put the world in a place where i am ready to take another run at it. after an hour or so th water needs to be reheated but that is something i can deal with . i can figure out how to control my water temperaure
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I like to walk by the river and listen to the sound of the water. I like to put a stick or leaf or paper boat in the current and watch it move on downstream.
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Pooh-sticks?
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yes!!!
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Just think: America was built on the predictability of the train schedule. Now the corporate mantra is the “New Normal,” which is quite possibly the opposite of the train schedule.
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welcome bob. the opposite of a train schedule is what i feel like much of the time . its good to be able to roll with the punches but a little predictability is nice on occasion too
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I think the bathtub is a great place to regroup, or anywhere I can listen to music.
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I agree with the bathtub is so soothing and music does help. Take Care.
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I’ll take a spot on a cabin porch, please, a cabin overlooking the Bois Brule River or maybe Lake Superior. I’ll require a swing seat or chair. If it is to be a chair, it must move . . . so, a rocker or glider. It would be better if it was more old than new, with a strong smell of weathered canvas. And since we are talking about something perfect here, let the chair or swing have a squeak or rubbing noise as I swing or rock while studying the water.
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A crossword puzzle or a sudoku comes to mind, preferably in my back yard under what’s left of the shady tree, mosquito free. OR… will have to think about it.
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Now that you mention it, Barbara, I think I also do sudoku to get through bad situations. I also do sudoku just because I like doing it.
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I use crossword puzzles to quiet my mind, too – especially soothing at the end of the day.
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Good morning to all:
I don’t react very well to things getting out of control. There may be some nervous attempts to get back into control that might not work. Then there might be some anger or sulking followed by fits of depression. Finally, after a while, I accept the situation or find a solution. If things are not badly out of control my react will be mild. With larger problems it could be kind of ugly. I travel to a some what crazed place in my head without really going any place other than that place in my head. I like to have trains stay on schedule or at least not get too far off their schedules.
I think I agree with Bob about “the new normal”. I’m not okay with any “new normal” where things are some what out of control much of the time. I think that if we are going into a “new normal” where things aren’t normal it is because wrong headed people see opportunites to advance their positions by creating or taking advantage disasters to get what they want.
I hope you don’t might my ranting. I think a lighter approach is better, but I do like to to do some ranting from time to time..
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Oops! I mean “don’t mind my ranting”, not “don’t might my ranting”.
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“The new normal” is a phrase that sets off alarm bells for me, too. Calling something normal doesn’t make it so.
There’s a Barbara Ehrenreich book called Bright-Sided: How the Relentless Promotion of Positive Thinking Has Undermined America, in which the author examines some of the ways people and corporations try to put positive spins on failures, cutbacks, layoffs, illnesses, and various kinds of catastrophes in the irrational belief that having a “good” mental attitude about it will make everything alright.
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Yes, Linda, all of that positive spining really is kind of alarming.
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Thanks for providing that title – I’d like to read it. I’ve thought about this – when something stinks, it just stinks. I dislike sugar-coating negative situations and having false expectations for a perfect world. Reality may not always be positive but it must be dealt with as it really is.
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I wonder if there are a lot of ND university people in their bathtubs this week. Last week the NCAA permanently finished the UND Fighting Sioux controversy and the Fighting Sioux are no more. Then the president of our local university was told to resign after it was discovered that 180 people who had never registered as students were enrolled, assigned to classes, and given grades (all A”s), and the volleyball coach was paying players’ rents under the table.
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Oh, goodness gracious snakes alive! What a pile of scandals! I hope you don’t mean to say that the school had 180 ghost volleyball players registered all at once. You guys apparently had three crises boiling over at once. Bathtub time indeed! I’ve been feeling rotten about how messy my finances were a few years ago, but I can see there are depths to which I did not fall. Good luck getting it all sorted out.
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Oh, you’re teasing. Things truly are pretty tame out here in the scandal department. I wish the rest of the country had such troubles.
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When things start getting out of control, I head to the Discworld. Sam Vimes, Tiffany Aching and Granny Weatherwax are wonderful role models for coping when things go pear-shaped. I can only wish to be half as clever–and ruthless–as Pratchett’s protagonists.
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“House at Pooh Corner,” “The Princess Bride” (either in book or movie form), the swings I installed in the back yard – I go for motion and noise sometimes like Steve, favorite books and movies for the predictability (light reading and fluffy movies work best – I’ll even throw in some Disney – like “Beauty and the Beast” – as needed). If there is any anger involved in my need for order, old Buffy the Vampire Slayer episodes are especially soothing (especially if I pick one with really good fight scenes).
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Yes, Anna, a swing, esp. if it’s a big tall one hanging from a high branch… really soothing.
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When I was a teenager I lived within walking distance of a park with really nice tall swings. Spent many hours there, back-and-forthing.
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Yes, somewhere in the last 40 years “they” decided the nice tall ones were too dangerous, and now we’ve got these dumb short ones.
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Morning–
First thing I slam a door and throw out some four letter words (if in a situation that I can do those things; clearly not in public)… then go crank up the music. Music soothes the savage beast you know.
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with headphones you can crank it up quietly
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That’s what I did in my teenage years… in my bedroom with the big Koss full ear cup headphones…
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One summer I had a beaver pond that I would go to. A medium walk down an old dirt road and a short hike up a path and there it was. I never saw or heard another person there. Other times in my life, I’ve had a certain spot by Lake Superior or a certain creek. Unfortunately I no longer have a good spot like that in my backyard and that might explain my lack of a healthy soul.
I do have an attic with lots of books I can retreat to now, but that is not at all the same as a beaver pond, a creek, or a rock by Lake Superior. However, it is better than nothing. Certain music can help, too – for me that is mostly Gordon Bok and Archie Fisher.
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where are you located. ill bet we can find you a tree stump somewhere edith
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yeah, there may be a tree stump nearby, but i need to be ALONE. as in “can’t see or hear anybody.” and no, a padded cell won’t work. it has to be a natural setting (depending on the weather, it can be indoors but it has to have a good view – good meaning not a bunch of houses and power lines and dirty alleys and stuff).
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I understand about the “alone”, Edith. We live right off a nature park, so we can pretend we’re away from the city down there, but if you listen closely you hear the drone of the freeway or something. But if I go in the middle of the day, there are very few people. I forget, do you live in the city now?
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yup, in the city, and a very ugly part of the city it seems to me. the view from my windows are not very soothing.
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Rise and Shine Baboons!
Well, I come to trail of Baboonery sometimes when things get too much. Last summer, my life on the trail kept me in business after our work disaster. For that I am forever grateful.
Other places: front patio, back deck, Bayfield, Wisconsin, the garden, and the oft mentioned crosswords.
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I meditate, not only when I feel overwhelmed, but daily. I concentrate on quieting the mind, breathing, deliberately relaxing muscles – one at a time, and seeking mental refuge in a favorite spot. Sometimes when I worry about something, a brisk walk in the woods helps clear out the cobwebs, or, if I happen to be anywhere near the ocean, nothing beats sitting in dunes watching the motion of the waves. After years of practice, I can almost conjure up both the sounds and smells of gentle waves licking the shore and feel the wind i my hair.
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Like many of you, I enjoy my bathtub: water as hot as I can stand, lots of candles and music. It’s especially soothing after a really hard confusing day at work.
I confess – another thing I really like to do is take a long drive somewhere that is scenic. A favorite is Wisconsin Hwy 35 south of Red Wing, through Maiden Rock and Stockholm on the Wisconsin side. I highly recommend it.
I like hiking best though. Nature is stable, even when the world around us is increasingly complicated and unstable. The sound of a stream flowing down over rocks or the sound of waves pounding on a lonely shore is the same from one day to the next, no matter what news the world has brought. Trees and plants follow a predictable, stable pattern through their annual cycle and, no matter what else may have happened, the flowers and leaves always provide their spicy sweet fragrance. If a tree falls, there is another one right behind it, just waiting to fill the void. Rocks and stones on the beaches change with every wave, but in their constant changing they stay the same. I enjoy listening to the sounds of the natural world. I love being overwhelmed by the slam of waves on the lake shore. It obliterates the anxiety produced by this confused world and reminds me that I’m only one little human being, and the universe is more than all of us together.
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A walk on the beach is a wonderful thing, but one that we shouldn’t take for granted. At a property where I work on the St. Croix, I used to take a break and go walking barefoot on the sand, and bring along a tennis ball to throw for two dogs (Mac and Marty) that belong to the next-door neighbor. The dogs were overjoyed at having someone to throw a ball for them, and never tired of swimming out into the water or jumping off a dock to chase it.
A couple of years ago, though, I was warned that I should always wear beach shoes because zebra mussels have invaded and left sharp shells scattered on the beach. The dogs are no longer permitted to play there because they get cuts on the pads of their paws.
It worries me to think what the next corruption of the natural environment will be like.
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republicans
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Ha ha! True! I was going to say “silver carp!” but Republicans? way better!
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Up until recently, when things got crazy I would often drive to the off-leash dog park and hike with my dog cavorting around me pointing squirrels and grinning at the joy of running. I miss that. I can’t hike like that any more, and I had to say goodbye to Katie this spring.
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Dogs are such great companions. I’m sure you miss your Katie very much.
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I write, I read, I take pictures…I basically make my own world where I have more influence.
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perfect solution i will try a bit more of that
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When I was still milking my chill place was sitting on the front step of the barn– or looking out a window on that same side. Looked to the East across a pasture and into the fields; across the creek and a neighbors pasture… to a hillside that I would like to imagine hadn’t changed since my Great Grandfather stood here looking at this same view.
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Ben, I miss not having that connection to my ancestors, the price I’ve payed for having strayed so far from home. My chill places are mostly in my mind and include both time and place.
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Gardening can be a refuge too, or any repetitive task that lets you mind go its merry way. And I agree with those above who mentioned getting out in nature – it really tends to put things in perspective. Thoreau: …in Wildness is the preservation of the World. Every tree sends its fibers forth in search of the Wild. The cities import it at any price. Men plow and sail for it. From the forest and wilderness come the tonics and barks which brace mankind. . . . My dad also had a book of nature photos by Les Blacklock, Meet My Psychiatrist.
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les was a friend , his son craig was a buddy. lives up in cloquet last i heard. craig still makes his living with photography and outdoor stuff. what a nice way to feed yourself.
we used to give craig flack because he was always sticking red canoes in the midle of his boundry water pictres where his dad would find the nature scene where the natural balance was the picture.. hmm come to think of it craigs last book he put his naked wife in all the pictures instead of a red canoe. interesting admission that the distraction is something you can work around to create art. kind of admission at the highest level
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I’ll definitely have to look up his work at the library!
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After reading everybody’s comments I am beginning to understand those commercials with bathtubs on the beach 🙂
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funny!
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Almost forgot another one – after dark, I head out to the back yard and just walk around out there, listen to the crickets, watch the moon rise. Everything is different in the dark. It’s sometimes cool to look back in through the windows of my house and see what it looks like to an “outsider”… a different perspective.
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BiR, you must not have dogs. It’s not wise to walk around in the grass in my back yard after dark, if you get my meaning.
OT: Went to an absolutely fabulous concert tonight. Daithi Sproule CD release concert at the Celtic Connection, what a line-up! So much talent in such an intimate space. Great evening.
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Yes, forgot about dogs… 🙂
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