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What is the outer limit of the human mind? What do we trade out for being "normal"? Would you trade "normalcy" for a gift? Is this just God "messing with us" to keep us guessing? They call them "idiot savants". Well... They tell me I'm halfway there.
H/T to Sophocles
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This really hits home for us. We have an autistic son with some savante-like gifts. He has always been able to give me directions - if he's been somewhere once he can get me there again by telling me turn by turn where to go. And he's always had perfect pitch - we've had him sing all his life b/c of this gift. I have him on a special diet to control his autistic behaviors and it works quite well. But, oddly enough, the more "normalized" he gets the more he loses of his gifts. Right now he's acting like a near-typical preteen boy with lots of attitude and the desire to be with friends and the ability to relate to them (well, except that he also has some level of mental retardation). BUT he's been so off-pitch that I've made him stop singing some of the choir songs and he's gotten me lost about 3 times in the past couple of months! We actually have this dilemma with him - "normalize" him with his diet or enjoy his autistic gifts - it's one or the other - we don't get both! Unfortunately there are parts of autism that are very difficult for the rest of us to live with (what does he notice, the world is all about him anyway). It's very hard to see him lose his gifts.
Mairs, That is fascinating. It is interesting that the word "idiot" is from the Greek meaning "one's own", or in a sense a person who has no reference point but himself. (The passage in Peter that says "no prophecy of scripture is by one's own interpretation" is literally, an "idiot interpretation"). Anyway, it doesn't mean "stupid", it means someone turned into themselves to some radical degree. Perhaps it is that the more we can block out all external "noise" (including relationships) our minds can focus on certain things because it is not scattered dealing with everything else...it is like concentration, only to some n-th degree. The spiritual implication of being able to ignore "logismoi" (our random thoughts) in order to focus on God is interesting to me. God bless your clan!
Wow this is quite amazing! We really haven't the slightest idea of our capabilities as humans. This is humbling since I could spend my whole life learning how to draw and never even come close to being that good. This makes me want to stop trying to do anything and just be quite and let God reveal what He will. Stephen
Correction: be quiet not be quite
probably obvious anyway.
"no prophecy of scripture is by one's own interpretation" is literally, an "idiot interpretation"
hehe...I could think of lots of idiot interpretations coming from the CEC....
Seriously, though, interesting word study - thanks!
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