What’s the coolest thing you’ve ever found (and kept)?
Ah, the art of finding things – a pursuit that’s taken me from the street corners adorned with abandoned treasures to the winding alleys where serendipity is the cartographer. Paintings, a crisp $50 bill, eclectic furniture – you name it, I’ve probably stumbled upon it. Especially in Brooklyn. There are Facebook pages dedicated to otems left on stoops. And, don’t even get me started on the things I’ve unintentionally gifted to the anonymous hunters of lost items.
But amidst this merry dance of gains and losses, the coolest thing I ever found wasn’t left on a street corner or tucked away in the folds of serendipity. No, my friends, the coolest treasure I ever found was something far more elusive and, dare I say, invaluable – my voice.
Now, I know it sounds a tad sentimental, a smidgen cheesy, but hear me out. As a South Bronx kid, I owned the stage like a seasoned actor. But life’s script took a turn, and I found myself scaling back, the spotlight fading into the background. It wasn’t a conscious choice, more like a plot twist I hadn’t anticipated.
Fast forward through the maze of graduate school, a labyrinth where you grapple with existential questions and caffeinate to survive. I had never had coffee until graduate school. It was in that crucible of self-discovery that I unearthed the essence of what I wanted from life. And there it was, my voice – dusty, a bit rusty, but unmistakably mine.
The journey from rediscovery to amplification was a metamorphosis. I wasn’t just finding my voice; I was tuning it, sculpting it into a resonance that echoed my convictions. But here’s the twist – I didn’t keep it just for myself. I lent my voice to those who found themselves marginalized, silenced in the cacophony of mainstream narratives.
There’s a saying I’ve adopted along the way – “If you’re not at the table, you’re part of the menu.” Being noticed, invited to the table is one thing, but once you’re there, you must speak. You must be heard. It’s not just about having a seat; it’s about orchestrating your voice into the symphony of discourse.
My coolest find wasn’t a tangible object, but a power – the ability to articulate, to advocate, to champion the narratives that deserve to be heard. And let me tell you, it’s a treasure that keeps giving, a flame that sparks change and lights the way for others.
So, here’s to the unconventional treasures found on the stage of life – the ones that require introspection, courage, and the audacity to speak up. In this grand scavenger hunt, my voice isn’t just a cool find; it’s the compass guiding me through the labyrinth of existence, reminding me that the coolest thing you can keep is the power to make your voice resonate in the world.
Categories: childhood, Culture, identity, Leadership, Psychology
psychologistmimi 
A Little Boy With No Words Until 4
A Man of Few Words As Noted By
Others in the Work Place All the Way
Into my Forties
And Me Watching TV
And How Everyone Spoke
In Long Paragraphs Yet When
Relatives Asked me What I’d Been Up to
All I Had to Say Was Two Words Working Working
To Make it Sound
Literally Like More
Than Just Working Hehe
Ah yes The Anxiety of Not Having
Anything to Say At All Other Than Just
Repeating The First Word Again In Awe
of the Elder Story Tellers at the Kitchen Table
When Very Young TV or Radio Not in the Mix
Just the Emotions Expressed Both Verbally and
Non-Verbally Taking You Totally Into the World of their
Story Then that
Truly Became
A Free Dance
And Song
Yes Waves
of Emotions
Resonating For the
Whole Play of Words
in the Story They Played
And Just to Think True No
Dance And Song Free If Not For
The Chronic to Acute Stress at Work
For 11 Years That as Science Shows
Now Destroys Bodily Systems Slowly
Yet Surely From Head to Toe Where
It’s Not Really So Much Serotonin that
is Even the Issue in Depression and Anxiety
It is the Actual Destruction of Bodily Systems
That Stress Unrelenting Chronic to Acute Does Most
Definitely Bring
Truly Associated
With Earlier Death
And At Least Destruction
of Bodily Systems Prematurely as Such
Anyway Falling to a Synergy of Death Threat
In 19 Medical Disorders Mostly Work/Stress Related
For It’s True Folks On the Autism Spectrum Are most
Definitely More Likely to Fall to Burn-Out ThiS Way Yes
As True i Verily Am a Canary in that Coal Mine ThiS WaY
Most Definitely Physically As Well Even With A Phrase
Named “Autism Burnout” As True Stress Hormones Are
Surely Heightened As Normal Social Stresses Are Much
More Severe For Folks on the Autism Spectrum For sure
Dear Lord i Only Wrote A Few Paragraphs About it on my
Archive Blog “Katie Mia Aghogday Views From the Autism
Spectrum and Beyond” And That One Small Post is Referenced
In Peer Reviewed Studies on Autism Burnout True Tens of Thousands
of Views on Just a Few Paragraphs in One Small Blog Post Yet It’s True
If Not Suffering From Type Two Trigeminal Neuralgia for 66 Months Wake
to Sleep the Worst Pain Known to Humankind Casually Described too in the
Medical Field as the Suicide Disease No Drug Would Touch in my Case Yes
Like a Dentist Drill in my Right Eye and Ear Making Effective Use of Hearing
And Seeing Almost Useless Stuck in my Head for 33 Months That Way Until
I Could Tolerate A Mountain of Pain Typing Each Word With the Screen Turned
All the Way Down Without Prescription lenses That Just Increased the Pain About
Two Inches From the Screen to Even See What The Hell i was Writing About Then in
Literal Hell Yes
Without a Memory
of the Feeling of A SMiLe
As the Destruction of Bodily
Systems From Chronic to Acute
Stress Will Surely Do That For Real Yes For
Real as Back Then Some Folks in the Medical
Field
Disputed
That Shown
Result in Science Now
Just A Small Mountain of Pain
Escape Writing Every Mountain
Word of Pain Yet Again if All that Hell
Didn’t Happen then It’s Not Likely i would
Have Written Around 15 MiLLioN Words Online
Since Thanks Giving Day 2010 Consecutively Every Day
in the Life of me Since That Day Doing my Best to Escape
Hell And
Stay With
Those Who
Loved me With
The Suicide Disease
It’s True We Humans Either
Adapt to Challenge and Survive
Or We Do Not The “Challenge of Job”
Is Surely No Myth Alone ThiS WaY Epigenetic
Untapped Potential is Real Meet The Challenges
Survive Even Thrive Reaping the Benefits of New Found
Gifts As Much of a
Surprise to Me
As Everyone
Who KNew me
Before i Am
Reborn again
As This New
Creation i Am Now For Real
True The 19,066 Miles of Public
Dance A New Gift Found Too In
Heaven Out of Hell For Real in
122 Months too And Even Along With
Celebrating “Nether Land Bible 10 MiLLioN WordS Old”
in 89 Months Now With “SonG oF mY SoUL” Coming of
Age to 12.3 MiLLioN Words on 11.18.2023 in 123 Months
Oh Yes Moving From Leg Pressing 500 Pounds at 53 to 1540 Pounds
at Age 63 Now True A New Found Human Potential Epigenetic Improvement too
Yet it Might All Be Hard to Believe
Except For All the Documented Videos
And “Depth of the Story” Reaching 3.3 MiLLioN
Words in 39 Months at the Place i Started Originally Writing
On “The Wrong Planet” Website on ThanksGiving Day of 2010
Yep in 81 Pages of One Solo Thread Where Each Page Taking
A Bit Over Two Weeks Reaches Somewhere in the Realm of 50 to 60
Thousand Words Yep Novel Sized EPiC Long Form Poetry Bi-Monthly As Such
There Was Movie About An “Accountant” Where A Man Who Once Received Help
From a Group Home for Folks With Autism Went Out And Broke A Whole Lot of
Rules As Somewhat
Of a Plain Clothed
‘Batman’ Seeking
Vengeance And Bringing
Back Funds to Support
That Place That Helped Him
As He Developed HiS Own Moral Code That Way
True it Was Anonymous It Didn’t Matter IF anyone Thanked
Him Or Not Yet It’s True When i Recovered Then Back in 2013
On ‘The Wrong Planet’ Folks Asked me How I Did it And i Really
Didn’t have A Full Answer For It As i Found the Answer Intuitively
Within Far Beyond
the Words i Had
to Describe it Then
It took me 7 Years to
Refine That Effort Yet
When i Did i Went Back to the
Wrong Planet as Just Another
‘Jonathan Livingston Seagull’ With All that
I Learned From Poetic Wisdom in Response
To Folks All Around the World You Know Dear Miriam
You’ve Been A Truly Immeasurable Value of Muse for
This Endeavor Your Eclectic Experiences You Relate in
All Stuff Life
There Are Some Days
in a Life We Are Called
Deep Within to Just do it
Without a Care for Shoe Sales Hehe
It’s True
TJere is Value
Far Beyond Any
Material Gain in Life including
Power Status or Position in Life
When the Giving Becomes the Winning
There is No More Race of Life We’ve Arrived
THere is No
WHere Else
to Go Yet Give Free
Of Course Being Financially
Independent Helps Yet Numbers
Were Always my Autistic Splinter Skill First Hehe
Darkness Far Beyond Tears LiGHT Beyond Joy
Life is
Worth
Giving
Away Even
Better When
We Truly BREatHE ALiVE Free
Water Wave Ocean Whole in Flow
With
SMiLes..:)
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Beautifully said!
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