On (Autism) Being Correlated To Rain

Ok... so I feel like I should comment about the study that correlated autism to rain. I've already voted (a week ago, by mail; as I just described to somebody else, I'm not the type to be self-important about that, because at best I fill the role of a self-righteous statistic), and it'll be a good way to ignore the whole election deal (which is distracting regardless of my feelings about voting).

I'll be frank. For me, this is about the pinnacle of "connect-the-dots" madness in autism studies. It's even worse than that whole autism/TV bit, which was fairly up there in terms of sheer ridiculousness. The progession might as well lead to linking autism to higher-priced furniture. And, yes, I'd bet you'd be able to pull that correlation off.

My criticism is, then, apparent; for whatever this study claims to say something, I don't see it claiming much of anything at all. The number of factors out that could determine this are just huge; this doesn't effectively truncate much of anything. Now, I'm actually kind of glad it doesn't (though having rain be the cause of autism without an interruptable trigger is a fun idea; we're not going to be aborting every child in Seattle).

But it does bring a different question, to be brought up briefly; who funded this stuff (expletive replaced)? Unless I'm missing something (and I will be all in the open that I very much could be), this was doomed to either way be a terribly useless piece of information. It's bound to be more damaging for all the P.R. confusion that advocates of any stripe will be dealing with than a generally helpful source of published information. And, of course, it's the one that gets the most attention, from what it seems.

But I want to ask another, simple question to myself for poking around, just for the sake of doing so; what does it like having a defining charactaristic of your person being correlated to rain? I suppose it's not unheard of for defining personality traits to have a tie to the weather as a person; I'll get back when I have the exact quote in relation to double conciousness in DuBois. And there are such things as "sunny dispositions". But what in autism, is rain?

Now, the question is always interseting for me for one clear obvious reason; I live in Reno, Nevada. It happens to rain, oh, once a year. Rain was a relative unquantifiable when I came over to Great Barrington for school (where it rains occasionally). So rain has always been a bit of a mystery to me as a human being. If there was such a simple causation, whatever tie there was happened to cross over to those "not raining" moments, either, or it was a very definitive rainy day.

But what would be about the rain that would be autistic? Are the rains themselves autistic; the enforces of a kind of focus and insularity? Objects of creativy and frustratingly rigid in some ways, and yet not easily quanitified as simply "rigid"? The preferred times to be wait around to be vaccinated? I bring up the last one because I imagine it might end up in someone's writing tomorrow. Just watch.

But yes... what of the rain, the feelings toward it? It is an odd object of love and hate, but I suppose mostly of hate, which at least gives a similarity to autism. Perhaps, in the spirit of the subject study, I should define them as thus ultimately tied etiological conditions because of that relationship. Or not. But the rain is so misunderstood, just like autism. And yet respected in a "I-understand-you-have-a-right-to-existence-but-why-me/today" respect, or perhaps a lack thereof.

I end by noting that, today, it is not raining in Great Barringon. Less chance of autistics today, it seems (though, of course, the overall period is what matters). Too bad. But should I hold hope that it will? I guess I will. So... let the rain come; let autism come.