Dear John,
When you were 8 or so, someone at school who was well-meaning but incompetent told you that looking at the Sun makes you go blind.
You went around for a few days terrified of catching a glimpse of the Sun out of the corner of your eye. Back then, you were pretty trusting, and it didn’t occur to you that you’d already done that hundreds of times and you hadn’t gone blind yet!
After a few days, you were caught out. You glimpsed the Sun out of the corner of your eye, and to your surprise, you didn’t go blind. You thought about it, and concluded that whatever the person had said didn’t apply to you. Then you took to wondering why they had said it if it wasn’t true. So you spent all your school break-times for a couple of weeks staring at the Sun to find out what it was they didn’t want you to see.
Your eyesight hasn’t been the same since.
If they’d just said what they meant, you’d have been fine. Looking at the Sun doesn’t make you go blind, but staring at the Sun damages your eyes.
All the best,
Future John
Fearfully & Wonderfully Broken is a series of letters from an autistic pastor to his teenage self, covering topics like faith, autism, disability and how to cope with life.
Most of the titles are deliberately wrong, and/or provocative (see letter 2).
John Allister is the vicar of St Jude’s Church in Nottingham, England.
At age 18, he was a maths/science geek who didn’t realise he was autistic.