#fearlessly different

[starsalvation]

—Mickey Rowe, Fearlessly Different

[yepthatsacowalright]

"Late one night David [Shiner] and I were sitting in the shared living room after a long day of clowning. He looked over and said to me, 'I am not really David Shiner.' 'What do you mean?' I questioned...wondering if I was just being punked after finally believing I was getting to work with one of my idols. David said, 'We must treat everyone we meet as if they are God or the universe just pretending to be a person for a short lifetime. We must treat everyone that way. Every single person on the street has that spark inside them.' I tried to repeat this all back to him to show my understanding, but the Cirque clown just stared at me. 'Well...yeah...but that's all just dense academic philosophizing. The point is: Be kind to everyone. Always. That's it,' said the clown."

Mickey Rowe, Fearlessly Different: An Autistic Actor’s Journey to Broadway’s Biggest Stage

[yepthatsacowalright]

"I also became obsessed with clowns, magicians, and people who I knew got to interact with society by playing a role. I would frequently not go out in public unless I was dressed as a clown. I wore a clown costume to the hospital for my brother's birth so that he would have a clown at his 'first' birthday party. Interacting with the world as simply my own self was too difficult. It felt too vulnerable to again and again reach for but ultimately fail at human interaction. Ironically, isn't this the essence of clowns, who try again and again and again but fail again and again, all the while wishing and reaching for human connection?"

Mickey Rowe, Fearlessly Different: An Autistic Actor's Journey to Broadway's Biggest Stage

[neurodivergent-media]

Without Fear or Condescension

Fearlessly Different: An Autistic Actor’s Journey to Broadway’s Biggest Stage is Mickey Rowe’s memoir of growing up with autism and his barrier-breaking …

“Fearlessly Different is for people with autism and those who love them. But it is also for those who do not see the world through measures of sensory overload and who perceive themselves to be “normal.” This book calls us away from fear and pity and toward building a radical new world, shaped in celebration of differences.”

[rachel-catherine]

My darlings, do not let this world turn you cold or take your happiness. If you are happy and love yourself for who you are, do not let the small voices of the unhappy ones bring you down. Be fearless enough to be different in a world full of unhappy and dark people.