This post appeared in my old WordPress blog, more than five years ago.
I have since then become less involved with Georging, and Gatherings are a thing of the past, at least for me. I do stay in touch with many of the friends I have made along the way.
If you don’t know what “Georging” is, check out this website:
I would say that 80% of the people I have met who are Georgers are autistic, and most of them are not aware of that. Like so many things, it is not necessary to be autistic to enjoy Georging, but it sure helps.
Disclaimer: remember that 73.9% of all statistics are just made up.
It Runs in the Family
By Michael Forbes Wilcox in Autism, Georging, Personal
Here’s a great picture of me with my Georging friend Ed, photobombed by his daughter Eve.
Actually, as you can probably tell, this was a selfie by Eve, with Ed and me in the background. Very clever!
The setting here is a classroom at CIP in Lee, very generously made available to us twice a year for Northeast Gatherings. Georgers come from all over New England, as well as New York, New Jersey, and (in Eve’s case) Maryland.
Ed is a very talented and articulate guy — he serves as our unofficial scribe and always writes up a description of the action at Gatherings he attends, with a playful account of all the personalities involved.
Ed also is a weekend musician, performing with a group that plays mostly classic rock and roll. In “real life” he has a career involving computers. All of these things: Georging, music, and engineering, have a lot in common, it seems to me, and require the same kind of thought processes that involve attention to detail and a flair for mathematics.
His offspring seem to share these traits, and although his son is not involved in Georging, both he and Eve have recently started careers in technical fields.
It’s quite a delight to have them participate in our geeky social circle. Gatherings are full of laughter and fun, and when we meet in public places, we often get curious looks and even outright questions, such as, “What the hell are you guys doing?” which of course only adds to the solidarity of the group.