Loren and Mark Twain

Breaking News: Loren's book, An Asperger Journey, is published! Our sister Andy has the boxes and will soon have some memorial readings in Tallahassee. Stay tuned for more about the book and how to order one.

Loren and Mark Twain were spiritual cousins. That’s why this quote reminds me of my brother. It's something I wanted to send to Loren, for his comment, and never got to it. Ran out of time. It would have been a wonderful response, I just know it.

Loren felt that his best education took place mostly out of school. Loren says school for an undiagnosed Aspie was a hostile environment, from elementary school through high school. He talks about it in his new book, An Asperger Journey. His far-flung interests just didn't fit any narrow curriculum or learning “boxes.” The world was his school, and books. Books of his own choosing. He had an amazing collection in those subjects that interested him the most: history, feminism, social ecology, native Americans, African-Americans, world geography, astronomy, and maps. Of course he had tons of National Geographics, his all-time favorite magazine, well maybe next to Sports Illustrated. A subscription to National Geographic made many of Loren’s Christmases.

It was hard going through those books. He loved them so, like friends. He had absorbed so much, thought so much, shared so much. We kept a lot, Andy and I, and we gave a lot away, to family and friends and to the Goodwill Book Store in Tallahassee, with the hope that people would enjoy the same books Loren did.

Loren and his books. Loren the reader, the knower, thinker, and doer. Loren, who would never let schoolng interfere with his education.