My superior son

I see where Time this week has a cover story on autism. I'll have to pick up a copy.

I have a son, Dante, who has a very mild form of autism, sometimes referred to as PDD-NOS. He can function in the normal world, although his communication style makes him a bit of an outsider in middle school. A shame really, intellectually he is superior to his classmates, already doing math at a college level. His "curse", his "disease" actually makes him in some ways better than those not "afflicted". He's my own private mutant, my own private "X-Man".

His powers of focus are remarkable. Coupled with a type of obsessive-compulsive disorder common in PDD-NOS kids, he tackles problems with an aggression of mental faculties that is incredible to behold. I was scary-smart as a kid, alienating many of my peers. He makes me look like I was developmentally disabled. If our society doesn't crush him for being different, he and others like him can unlock an order of scientific truths that might make survival on this planet a better and an easier path.

Of course, first he'll have to get through his teenage years, a period that is rough even on the most mainstream of people.

But his fraternal twin brother, Elric, is riding shotgun. He lacks Dante's "Homo Superior" intellectual talents, although exceptionally bright in his own right, and is "normal" as people would define it, in his brain function. He has his brother's back and his best interests at heart.

Couple that with his mother's mama-bear protective reflexes, a sister who'd take a bullet for him and a dad who, while somewhat still in exile, would do just anything for him and he has a good chance of developing the coping skills needed to get by in a world he is superior to in most ways.

Mozart to several billion Salieris, a daunting task.

But what is a superhero born to if not to overcome impossible odds?