Persistance

My biggest takeaway from the movie, “Wretches and Jabberers,” is persistence. I have come to re-evaluate my actions of “persistence” compared to what Larry and Tracy are trying to do as activists of autism.

In the movie, Larry and Tracy, two men who have autism, travel to Sri Lanka, Japan and Finland to spread awareness about autism and get others to join their cause. They are amazing people— they both learned how to read and communicate via typing despite the odds of them never being able to communicate. This is how the disease is: it prevents those affected by it from talking, not from thinking. Larry and Tracy meet fellow autism advocates Chandima, in Sri Lanka, Naoki, in Japan, and Antti and Henna in Finland, who have all learned to communicate as well and help Larry and Tracy get a feel for how autism is accepted in these respective places.

One of the most incredible things about the movie is to see how persistent Larry and Tracy are in simple activities that are made much more difficult. The typing itself takes very long, and it is evident that at times Larry or Tracy wanted to just give up if they were upset. But seeing them push through and keep typing so their assistants could understand what was wrong was so inspiring. Everything was pushing them to stop typing, and yet they kept going.

Another amazing moment was when Tracy met with one of the politicians for the State of Vermont (I cannot remember who it was). Tracy understood how important this meeting was and was frustrated when he could not properly convey what he was trying to say. Instead of letting this frustration get to him, he calmly kept trying until the politician understood. Communicating seems like such a simple thing to me— I either talk, text, email, call, etc without much difficulty. But for Larry, Tracy, and the others, their only option of sharing their thoughts is to type. I never thought of what it would be like to be limited in communication.

Larry and Tracy share in the movie that it is difficult for children with autism to attend school because they cannot speak. At eight-years old, Larry was placed in an institution for 15 years. Despite this, he developed a passion for painting while in the institution, which he has done his whole life. The detail, creativity and precision Larry puts into his painting (which is captured on camera) is very impressive. Seeing this, I wonder how much he could have accomplished in a school setting.

I hope that the practice of institutionalizing kids with autism is not still continued, especially since according to Autism Speaks, the largest autism research and advocacy organization in the world, autism is “the fastest-growing serious developmental disability in the U.S.” and the disease is found to be increasingly more prevalent. It is good that activists such as Larry and Tracy are educating people on autism since it is a major issue in our society that I feel is not often discussed as much as it should be. I know that I didn’t know much about autism before this movie and I am glad I do now. To conclude, I have no doubt that Larry and Tracy will continue to be successful because of their persistence.