History vs. Hollywood

Matt is a History Channel fanatic. He is also fascinated with disasters. What could be better than a disaster show on the History Channel? Unfortunately, Matt believes what he sees on the History Channel – all of those animations and graphics and recreations. After all, if it is on the History Channel it must be true. Of course, the narrative of the show describes events and what is possible and discusses both the pros and cons using various experts. But Matt doesn’t seem to listen to everything they say – nope, just the actual disaster parts. The Mayan Prophecies and Nostradamus Effect are the two shows I’m really concerned with as Matt has watched both of these repeatedly. Both discuss the Mayan calendar and the prediction for the end of the world.

A person learns by various types of stimuli and usually has one type that is better for them than the others. I’m talking about visual (what you see), auditory (what you hear), and tactile (what you do with your hands). For some, watching another perform a task is the best, where others want the explanation of how to do it and still others don’t quite get it unless they put their own hands on it and do the task themselves. All have their good qualities, and all contribute to the learning process. Each person knows which is best for them.

Matt has always been more of a visual learner – watching others, observing phenomena, deciphering schematics and maps. Of course he has learned many things through both tactile and auditory methods also, but he is definitely more visual. For him, his autism has his senses acute. That means certain things feel weird, and sounds can be painful, even bright lights are avoided. His sense of hearing is very fine tuned – and not in a good way. When he was young his mind would pick and choose what auditory stimuli were good and which stimuli were bad. For example, the sound of a lawn mower made him cringe forcing him to cover his ears. Fire alarms during a fire drill at school just about tore him to pieces. No one in the house could ever raise their voice in anger or yell (parent behavior modification resulted from that one!). Dogs barking, vacuum cleaners running and trucks downshifting on our road all brought his hands to his ears to lessen the pain. No wonder autism is a communication disorder – we are a species that relies heavily on sound to communicate, and sound was not welcome in his world. So, it should not surprise me that he had developed selective hearing.

Over the years he learned to listen better. He learned that if I was talking to him he needed to look at me. I had to make sure my voice was calm and soft. He learned to connect the visual (my face) with the auditory (my voice). I thought we were past the stage of learning to listen until we took him to the movie 2012.

On the way home Matt seemed on edge. Something was wrong. Shouldn’t he be talking excitedly about the movie he had just seen? I turned to him and asked, “You do know that the movie was just fiction, right? It wasn’t real Matt”. “Yes it is!” he countered. This caught me off guard. What? Where did he get that idea? “It’s true”, he continued, “I saw it on the History Channel!” He was referring to the show, The Mayan Prophecies, about the world coming to an end in the year 2012 – because the Mayan calendar said so! He obviously had not actually listened to the narrative of the show which describes what some people think, what the possibilities were and the science that shows it to be just a legend. “The History Channel was only showing what some people think”, I argued back. His face became red with anger. “It is true! It’s on the Mayan calendar.”

We argued all the way home but I could not convince him that he was not going to die on December 21, 2012. He had been living with the fear of the world ending, of him dying, knowing there was no safe place on the earth to hide. It made me sick to think of him feeling his life would soon be over, that he had absolutely no control – that death awaited him in 2012. I was stunned to find out that he felt this way.

When we arrived home I talked to him again about the History Channel and told him to really listen to what they said. “You need to just trust me on this – just listen to all of what they say, Matt”.

Today the DVD came out for the movie 2012 and I took him to get it. We hurried home so he could see his new movie before we had to leave for class. I watched it with him, and we talked a little – mostly about the Yellowstone Super Volcano (we will never be able to visit there because of his fear that it will erupt), but I didn’t argue and didn’t make any remarks about it being a Hollywood flick. I just wanted to enjoy our time together.

As the final scene ended and the credits started to roll, Matt turned to me and said in his happy, on-top-of-the-world- voice, “This is just fiction, it isn’t real”. Cool! That was unexpected. He must have watched the Mayan Prophecies again and actually listened to the debate. “That’s right, Matt”, I said smiling. Wow! He had made a judgment based on the auditory alone. He actually allowed his ears to take precedence over his eyes – at least for this one time. I wanted to jump up and dance, dance, dance! But I sat there calmly, allowing him to take full credit for a job well done. “You like disaster movies a lot, don’t you?” I chided. Matt then began to list his favorite disaster movies, adding at the end that they were all just fiction.

Yep, Matt feels secure again. He knows that his life still has endless possibilities and decades more time. He knows movies are just Hollywood and The History Channel is more than just cool graphics.