And Then There Are the Rest of Us

I attribute the surprises of Wade's brain to Trisomy 21.

But then Chris talks about waking up in the morning and seeing a colored circular line-up of all the days with the current day zooming in for a close-up view.

And Randall sees black numbers lined up in strange ways in two-dimensional squares laid out at ascending right angles with lighted backgrounds ranging in shades from white to dark gray.  He sees days of the week like a boardwalk with each board being a day.  His days of the week and his numbers go from right to left, which really freaks me out.

Nevin has weird urges to drive off bridges when he crosses them, an impulse which he shares with nearly all of his siblings.  Now that's got to be genetic, right?  (And I didn't know that about him until relatively recently!)

Aaaaaaaaaak!  My brain doesn't operate in those ways; therefore, I would have to conclude that I alone am normal.

But then I seem to recall tendencies to laugh uncontrollably when over-stressed, under-rested, in church, or at midnight.  And Nevin doesn't understand that at all.  "What's so funny?" he says.  And, for me, the fact that nothing is funny, and that he doesn't understand how funny nothing can be,  is absolutely the funniest thing of all.

And I'm sure he wouldn't have been surprised that my camera didn't capture the little elf that I saw, sitting on this leaf hammock swinging on a spider's thread twenty feet from Nowhere.

In conclusion, before you think we're just a family of aliens,  I would like to point out that all people have quirks in their brains, some more than others (and if you can't think of a quirk someone else can probably point it out for you).  But part of the beauty of life is that, if we pay attention, each of those different kinds of brains can contribute something unique to society that would otherwise be lacking.

...Because sometimes you need a biologist,

and sometimes you need a poet.

Sometimes you need a scientist,

and sometimes you need a song.

                                                           --Rob Bell

And, sometimes, just maybe, you need an extra chromosome.  I know our family did.