My wife and I recently watched Man of Steel. As super hero movies go, meh. Admittedly, it’s really hard to make a good movie about superman, and it’s better than some efforts, but that’s not what this post is about.
The scene that Julie and I found the most compelling was one relatively early in the movie, showing Clark as a young boy in school. At a young age, still adjusting to his super powers, he is overwhelmed by the number of sights and sounds coming in. The teacher is trying to ask him a question, but he has trouble hearing her over the other kids tapping their pencils, heartbeats, birds outside, and pretty much anything else. He can’t see her directly because he can see everything else all at once.
Young Clark Kent is a kid with autism. There’s no filter to drown out the stuff you don’t need to pay attention to. A kid with autism can’t hear you because of the vent that has a slight rattle you never really noticed, or the slow drip of snow melting off the roof and hitting the car roof, or maybe even the hum of the fluorescent light.
He’s trying to listen, it’s just really hard for him to hear you.
So, in conclusion, our son is Superman. Just without the heat ray vision.
Yet.
