Thank you Russ Kane for telling me to look at Temple Grandin as an example of courage, and include the HBO film Temple Grandin as part of our 2011 Popcorn Parables. This woman is truly amazing, and it’s no wonder she was listed in the 2010 Time 100 list of the 100 most influential people in the world in the category “Heroes”.
"I am different, not less," Temple Grandin is autistic. Born in 1947, by age two, it was apparent that something was “wrong,” with her and the diagnosis of autism followed in 1950. We still don’t know the cause or causes of autism, but we’ve come a long ways in the kind of support provided. In 1950, the recommendation was a lifetime institutionalism. She did not speak until age four, and it took intensive speech therapy to accomplish that routine developmental step. Her mother championed her cause, and along the way key figures provided essential support and encouragement. But life for a kid different from the rest is difficult, even cruel.
What Grandin’s autism took away is the normal emotional and social abilities we expect and value. What autism gave in return was a completely different way of processing the sensory data so that Grandin saw “pictures.” Her grasp of reality, while profoundly different, gave her significant advantages over “neurotypical” people. The big breakthrough came when her abilities became focused on the animal husbandry world. "I think using animals for food is an ethical thing to do, but we've got to do it right. We've got to give those animals a decent life and we've got to give them a painless death. We owe the animal respect."
Watching cattle at the feedlots, she sensed their distress in ways others could not. As she pursued her master’s degree and doctorate, she took what she knew about her personal experience of the anxiety of feeling threatened by everything in her surroundings and of being dismissed and feared, and applied that to her quest to promote humane livestock handling processes. While many in the cattle business mocked her and dismissed her work because she was different, Grandin’s courage and persistence kept her focused while others might have given up in the face of ugly discrimination. Her work resulted in sweeping curved corrals that mimic the natural movement of cattle and reduces their anxiety and distress. In 2004, Grandin won a “Proggy” award from People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.
The clip I’m going to show Sunday is the presentation of her plans for a more humane way of handling cattle at the slaughter house, a scene that transitions into a dramatization of her attendance of the annual Autism Society of America. Pushing the experts to the edges, Temple took center stage to tell her story of what life is like from her perspective. I need to warn you that there may be a cringe factor because we’ve disassociated from the steak on our plate and where that steak came from.
The things I’m hoping the clip illustrates and my message conveys are…
- We are all different in one way or another, and that until I embrace the “different” in me, I can’t embrace the different in you.
- Because we can’t embrace the “different” in each other, we negate the contribution we both can make to our life together. Temple’s “different, not less,” reminds me of Paul’s argument that the church is the “body of Christ,” and it’s crazy for one part of the body to say to another, “I don’t need you.” We need each other to be all who God created us to be. (See Romans 12 and 1 Corinthians 12)
- Something happens in us when what makes us different becomes our strength, and we realize this isn’t something we did. It was God doing in us what we couldn’t do for ourselves. It is God’s upside down world in which our weakness is the occasion for God’s power to be manifest. This upside down world is captured in Paul’s amazing declaration in 2 Corinthians 12:10: “I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and difficulties for Christ's sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong.”
Now for what’s on my desk…
Starting this Sunday Tish Bulkley will lead a three week discussion on the spiritual aspects of the third stage of life. The apostle Paul tells us that as our bodies start to fall apart in older age our spiritual life is growing and blooming. Join us to explore this fascinating Biblical statement and the new cognitive brain science which proves it. Class starts at 9:15 sharp in the conference room and ends promptly at 10:30 we will be in plenty of time for the second service.
Please plan to stay after the second service for our annual congregational meeting to review the budget and elect our Church Officer Nominating Committee.
I can procrastinate with the best of them. It wasn’t until I attended our Legacy Luncheon last year that I realized Lorna and I really needed to update our estate plans. We’ve now done so to the relief of our families and our own peace of mind. Your Legacy Team is offering another opportunity to learn about estate planning and the possibility, if you so desire, to leave behind a legacy gift for God’s work at St. Andrew. Our second annual lunch will be Sunday, October 2nd at 12:15pm. Plan to attend. The worst that’s going to happen to you is you’re going to enjoy a great lunch courtesy of the Legacy Team, and you might discover some new information that will be very helpful for you and your family. Our special guests will be Chip Allen, an attorney specializing in estate planning, and Skip Herbert from the Presbyterian Foundation.
Now you know what I know.
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