Blob Thing Visits Hexagon and Becomes Very Enthusiastic Indeed About It

Blob Thing got completely sidetracked yesterday when chatting with his person and dictating his post for today.  He isn't going to apologise for that.  In the end he felt it was important for him to share his experiences at Northern Pride.  He wanted to talk about a couple of ways he spotted in which the great festival of inclusivity isn't necessarily that inclusive.  There are other ways too that other people have talked about.  It's very sad.  At least Blob thinks it's very sad.  A festival that should ideally seek to be the most inclusive happening that happens during the Newcastle year is in these ways not inclusive.  That's sad.  What makes Blob Thing very sad indeed is that the festival organisers don't seem to be doing much to tackle the problems.  And sometimes the festival has become less inclusive rather than more inclusive.

Blob's person has to agree.  In fact she finds that there are places that don't even outwardly claim inclusivity that are more inclusive than Northern Pride.  There are organisations that are more inclusive too.  Perhaps none of them are perfect.  Perhaps perfection is impossible.  But these organisations are seeking in every way they can to be fully inclusive.  That's not the reason they exist.  It's just a byproduct of the people involved being good people.

The Sunday Assembly is one such group.  Blob was proud to be pictured with their banner yesterday.  Blob's person knows that even the Sunday Assembly members have made mistakes from time to time.  But that is fine.  She doesn't mind.  Because there is no malice intended, they always apologise, always learn from the mistakes, and they work conscientiously to make things even better.

Anyway, Blob is NOT going to get completely sidetracked today.  He'll post again about Pride sometime.  But not today.  And he hasn't got time to get sidetracked anyway - he's off to another couple of Pride events this evening, which he's sure he will enjoy.

Today Blob wants to start telling you of a very exciting day he spent in a place he keeps calling Hexagon.  That isn't its real name and Blob's person desperately wants to type the real name because she went there too and hasn't blogged about it yet and her blog will use the proper name of the place.  But Blob Thing isn't letting his person call it anything other than Hexagon.  Not on his blog.

He likes the name Hexagon.  It's a good name for a place.  More places should be called Hexagon or be named after other shapes, flat ones and maybe even after three-dimensional ones.  He'd love to see towns called Cuboid, Pyramid, Dodecahedron and Cylinder.  If there are higher dimensional town names that would be even more exciting.  Wouldn't it be absolutely wonderful to live in the town of Hypercube or perhaps even the grand capital city of Tesseract?

Blob Thing thinks so.

If he ruled the world perhaps he would change some place names to shapes.  Fleetwood could become Square.  Sydney could become Oblong.  The Potteries towns could be known as the Mandelbrot Set and be renamed after different fractal forms.  Manchester, where he was born, could be Hypercube and Newcastle, the place of his house, could be Tesseract.  Or perhaps the other way round.  But he would definitely have to move the capital city to one of them.  As world ruler that would be a very sound move.  Blob on his Tesseract throne dishing out justice, love and inclusion.  He's not sure how having a throne would be strictly in accord with his democratic beliefs but since it's just a fantasy that he knows will never happen he isn't going to worry too much about that.

Anyway.  Hexagon.

Blob Thing was very excited to be going on another trip.  And this time a trip to somewhere with a good name.  Hexagon. Hexagon.  Hexagon.  Hexagon.

Blob's person would like to apologise for the way that paragraph went.  The end of it can't have been very interesting for Blob's readers.  Blob's person could have typed the word dozens and dozens of times were she just to type everything Blob says rather than discussing the words a bit during the typing process.

Blob is just sitting there at this moment and he keeps saying Hexagon.  Over and over again.  Mostly slowly and in a monotone.  Hexxxxxxxx  Aaaaaaaaaa Gonnnnnnnn.  But sometimes he's throwing in a few quick Hexagons in a high voice or he is singing the word slowly and playing with the sound of it.  Blob's person has told him that he's meant to be dictating his blog post to her but he's enjoying the word immensely and is pretty much lost in a world of his own.

Sometimes Blob can be very stereotypically autistic.  But that's okay.  He's allowed to be who he is and nobody is going to seek to try to change him into someone else or use well-meaning but ultimately cruel techniques to try to get him to be less autistic.  Nobody will ever say that Blob should be cured.  Nobody will ever be allowed to say that he is less than anyone else because he is autistic.  Nobody.  Ever.

And now Blob has changed his repetition.  Tesseract.  Hexagon.  Hypercube.  Tesseract.  Hexagon.  Hypercube.  It's pretty cute to listen to the way he is speaking and singing the words.  You would probably laugh if you heard him and it has to be said that autism can be quite funny.  It's very hard work.  But it can be staggeringly amazing.  And sometimes it can be funny too.  As long as the laughter is in the right spirit then laughing about it is good.  It's the old adage - laugh with the person, not at the person.

Blob Thing is enjoying himself and is getting very bouncy about the words.  He'll stop soon.  He has to really because he is wanting to accompany his person to the Pride events soon.  Blob really is pretty marvellous.  His person loves him a lot and it brings her such joy when she sees how happy Blob can be, whether it's through a word, through the feel of the wind, or through the way he spends time with his friends.  Maybe one of the brilliant parts of autism is that there is often a deeper appreciation of joy, of wonder, and of the intense and sometimes and overwhelming intensity in something so little.  It's just a word.  It's just some dust in the air.  It's just the smoke from an incense stick.

Blob is happy.  His smile is so wide.  Autism doesn't make him less.  It makes him different.  His struggles are different from that of a neurotypical person.  And so are his joys.

Sorry about that.  Blob was wanting to write about Hexagon today.  He'll have to do it tomorrow because his digression into inclusivity, his digression into place names, and his total concentration on the shape words mean that together we have written a lot and we haven't even reached the first of his Hexagon adventures - which involves a prison and a punishment.

That will have to wait yet another day.  Please forgive Blob and his person.  They will try again tomorrow.


[1201 words]

Note:

It's fortunate (or unfortunate) that Blob Think doesn't yet know about hexaflexagons.  His person says it's very unfortunate and he should learn of hexaflex joy.