I find this essay beautiful in a way I find difficult to describe. It’s a sort of ‘Zen and the Art of Picture Framing’, I guess. But more personal, more lyrical. I love this genre of personal essay combining memoir with vividly material reflection on the smaller or more obscure parts of life and work. Found via a 2024 year-end top 10 list by the Electric Typewriter.

This captivating personal essay manages to convincingly describe the reality and debilitating potential of autism, while at the same time describing the individual diversity behind ‘neurodiversity’ that sometimes makes me doubtful how helpful these DSM-defined labels are:

ASD is a spectrum, but there is often a presumption that the spectrum is a linear gradient from mild to severe. In fact, the disorder is not a spectrum but spectra, a solar system of sprawling constellations in 3-D that differs from one person to the next. Within autistic communities, they say, “If you’ve met one person with ASD, you’ve met one person with ASD.”

Origin of the wonderfully useful 'spoon' unit of energy used by the chronically ill and disabled – including myself. By Christine Miserandino.

A reflection on work and life with an unreliable and unpredictable body. The concept of ‘crip time’ is a great counterpoint to typical approaches to time and planning, clarifying that and how these create inaccessibility for differently abled people.