TempleGrandinDVDSPOILING

 

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Introduction/Definition/etc

 

Stream of consciousness probably impossible to follow,

but that is the life, my life anyway, this time about Temple

Grandin HBO movie DVD...

 

20101231 12.12 pm Jerry

 

Body

 

So Temple Grandin is a figure in the Autism Community,

an author, agricultural animal scientist, public speaker

and advocate.  Author of books such as Thinking In Pictures,

Animals Make Us Human, and Unwritten Rules of Social Communications

as well as inventor of 50% of the cattle processing chutes, processes

and stuff out in the USA.

 

Not for the faint of heart, the DVD of the HBO movie goes into the

life and times of Temple.  From being diagnosed, expelled from one school,

to growing up in Boarding School, and flashing back to those growth experience

topics from going to her Aunt's Ranch the summer before college.

First seeing cattle pens, autistic communication, laughing about movies

she remembers "Man From U.N.C.L.E" something this generation

probably doesn't know much about, a black and white era, long

gone by, unless you were around for the 1950's, much less growing

up in them...  Her mom went to Harvard, and pointed that out when

the Doctor diagnosing Temple with Autism at age 4, condescended

and recommended putting her in an institution for life.  The explanation

was infantile schizophrenia, and the case considered hopeless,

not talking at age 4, didn't like hugs from mom, stares off into space,

a determined and compassionate mom (slightly different from the last

entry family dynamics of YouBetterNotCryBySPOILEDAugustenBurroughs )

uses flash cards with pictures and words, spoken repeatedly

to teach Dog, Cat, Mom, Dad (dad absent from most of this film,

maybe he didn't want to be part of it? or really absent, like Forrest Gump's

dad "on vacation", permanently) .

 

I could relate to so much of this DVD.  But I did catch an error

on the captioning I had turned on "THAT GATE" in the pickup truck

on the way there.  Personally flashing to Mozart And The Whale,

a movie I'd seen before by Jerry and Mary Newport, about a

budding couple, as a single met in a support group he was running,

taxi driving and other holding a job and life issues, not to mention

my favorite "Tuscon says we have to get along", Mary exclaims,

picturing the entire City faced with the turbulent relationship

rollercoaster that was the Newports...

 

Anyway, Temple Grandin is the other biggie in Autism Community,

and someone I'd avoided, due to the slaughter house animal themes,

and I can picture PETA and other Vegan groups getting mixed signals

by this cowgirl dressed geek extraordinaire.

 

She dealt with being blocked from entering the stables,

faced the death of a horse she wanted to connect to in Boarding School,

challenges of keeping her in school, lucky to have had the advantages

of a family of some wealth and prestige (as evidenced by the party

she had with family friends, trying to introduce her to their son)

she goes and melts down, not liking parties, doesn't know what

to say, how to act, people's vagaries causing problems for processing

what was going on...

 

And the cowboys and ranch owners weren't much nicer.

She had to get a signature to work on her Masters Thesis

buying a pickup truck, dressing up as a man, getting jeans

and all dirty intentionally to get past the guard at the gate,

another time thrown out of the slaughterhouse, her

Boarding School science teacher who worked at NASA

told her she should check those out, after inventing something

and coming up to a problem, probably driving through the night

to get advice face to face, he offers her tea, silly, considering she

has the social graces of a Marine, or English

Buckingham Palace Guard...

 

The Science teacher who helped get her mother to

consider dropping her off at the Boarding School,

talking her out of just leaving after the admissions people

gave up on her, even with the Special Education focus

and rural living, horse back riding, making matchbox like

go carts, competitions, sending off rockets as celebration,

and other such learning experiences.  French class was a trip,

professor calling out the girl hiding in the back of the class

having such problems with abstract things like language,

picturing eels, in all the activities, so much fish in French,

just a pronoun or similar, not the noun and subject,

similar to El Capitan, the Eel Captain? full with graphic,

the best I can recall.  Temple's basically eidactic memory,

remembers everything she sees, the interviews about her

condition/ syndrome/ autism were confusing, is she answering

the questions truthfully? or is the processing and wording so

foreign and abstract, almost "When did you stop beating your

wife?" style, unable to parse, but forced to answer personal

questions of how she thinks, but the NTs (NeuroTypicals,

as they are now called, like Will Smith's Fresh Prince of Bel Air

parents, Just Don't Understand....

 

Generalizing off of memory photos of all the shoes she can

reacall instances, but how to process them?  The Paper Chase,

a Harvard Law School movie of my generation, had a law student

with Eidactic (Total Recall) memory and he would not get the right

passages when drilled on how to think like a lawyer, clearly not

a mind of "Mush" as Professor Kingsfield would call it.

I've always related to a lot of that, before MH history,

and being rather visual myself, remembering and noticing

many details most don't even see, much less think important,

see VisualNews.com for some interesting holiday trees,

Bicycle and Soda Bottle, not to mention Chairs...

 

Anyway, I'm rambling and most people will go on for nausium

time, autistics especially, on and on like a child about

some topic most wouldn't think twice about, but

short answer:  Interesting Movie.  May not represent

much of the Autistic Spectrum, as Hollywood rarely

portrays the average man/ woman, a poster CowGirl

for the media and Mainstream Society to latch on to,

now speaking on Fox & Friends about budget cuts

and putting kids in the corner, mind killing for an autistic

kid, much less anyone else, ~30 hours of interactions

and special services, costly, but maybe a worthwhile

investment, as lifelong costs are astronomical,

caregivers burning out and dying off, and left with

adults, like myself who don't have the supports

necessary to function...

 

As Charlie Rose does a Who We Lost in 2010,

my father is not on his program, but many things

I would call him about, this movie being one of them,

not to mention all the other day to day living

and humor issues, being a cheerleader at the end,

family mascot,  thinking I'm a joke, in appearance,

but still the only one who really understood at times,

my maternal unit, mostly too busy to help,

or absent.

 

Socialization by the Cattle Press organizations,

met at an auction, following him through the yard,

getting his card, mechanically saying nice to meet you,

the social graces, of getting her to dress like a cow girl,

embroidered shirts, the professional attire of country

woman, and eventually giving her deodorant,

her entire diet consisting of jello and yogurt

she add cattle pins like the military metals of honor

a returning vet is welcomed while she is shunned,

and discarded, even the coyboys fill her front windshield

with cow testicles.  she decries "I've eaten bull testicles

at my Aunt's Ranch" and "A Waste", storming off to

go to her self made hugging machine, similar to calming

cattle, she puts herself in the position, many times literally

of the cattle, and what visual and auditory stimulae are

stressful, the will go like sheep, off the edge of a cliff

to their death in the slaughterhouse, raising cortisol,

not good for the cow to meat transition process...

 

Basically, treating the cattle humanely is good for cattle

business, contrary to the male dominated, got to zap those

creatures to get them to bend to our cowboy wills,

one invention "the idiots" I think she called them,

killed at least three cows in the dipping pen invention

by using it the wrong way, she learned drafting by

watching someone, buying the materials and made

her own plans when he was too busy to do a rush job

someone though she could do...

 

Anyways ^ 2 or 3, got to put this one down,

losing her Science teacher, going up to the casket,

starting to take her shirt off, to the consternation of

her mother and aunt but just taking her cattle pin,

metal of honor to leave with him, leaving the funeral,

early, and wanting her life to have meaning, leaving something

behind, almost getting spiritual and soupy,

bringing her best friend/ roommate, the blind girl

who didn't complain about her having a hugging machine

in the room, the opposite disability, remembering voices

and sounds to accommodate, instead of Temple's visual

processing gifts, and disabilities, bringing her to

hear the slaughterhouse noises, mooing and sounds

being her Master's Thesis, over the objections of

her advisor/ teacher, but got it to help mechanize

the handling of cattle to meat transitions...

Going through the door to new risky and apprehensive

situations, the electric door on the grocery shopping

store, thinking guillotine killing machine and the wife

of the slaugher house helping her through it, introducing

her to the husband, and getting her past the guards,

who threw her out once already.  "We don't do Tours"

and calling the guards, the greeting lots of autistics

probably get...

 

 

  

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20101231 Jerry

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