square peg, round hole

Last week was a tough one for my little Mini Me.  As a child with Asperger's Syndrome, he lives in a very different world from the one most of us inhabit - he's my little square peg, and these days the school system is the teeny little narrow round hole that he's just not fitting into.  Of course I am his fiercest advocate, constantly reminding his teacher that this magnificent little soul was not made to be stuffed into a little box all neatly wrapped up by rules and regulations - but I don't have to live with the daily challenge of existing in a world where not much makes sense to me.  I can only imagine what it is like to be told hundreds of times a day that you are "wrong", just by being who you are, and I can only hope that the strength of his family's love and our unconditional acceptance of him just as he is will in some small way help to mitigate the emotional damage that will invariably be done.  Sometimes I just want to tuck him in my pocket and keep him safe from humanity's ignorance and cruelty, but I understand deep down that he has to learn to make his own way in a world that will not flex much to accommodate his uniqueness.  He is an absolutely brilliant little boy, and of course that will serve him well - but still...  it can be a cold, cruel world, and sometimes I feel like a pretty meager blanket.

From my art journal, on a day when I was feeling particularly pissed off by his teacher's lack of compassion and understanding: