Are neurodivergents cast as the “weeds” in mainstream society’s garden?
It’s said that weeds are simply wild plants growing in the “wrong” place. For hundreds of years, gardeners have removed any plant offending their eyes and their sensitivities. Spending inordinate amounts of time, money and effort to nurture exotics they find beautiful, whilst removing or killing anything deemed ugly or unproductive that competes with their darlings. Interestingly over recent years, there’s been a move towards naturalistic meadow gardens growing native species. They’ve even won Gold Medals at the Chelsea Flower Show. Global warming and climate change is accelerating this shift. What we are witnessing is the gradual acquiescence of humans to natural forces greater than themselves and adapting to accommodate them. What once were weeds are now viewed as valuable additions to horticulture.
I bought myself a fancy camera, this last weekend. Why you might ask when I have a perfectly good camera on my smartphone. True, but I wanted a fancy camera for several reasons.
Most of all, I wanted the “gap”. The gap is that magical moment between being triggered by something and reacting automatically to it. I love my smartphone and it’s great for snaps, but I wanted a camera that was not only technically flexible but one that forced me to look at the world in much greater detail. Taking a moment each time to compose my image with consideration, not habit. A metaphor for life if you will.
I took it out for a spin today on my favourite local walk through my village Thames Ditton. I strolled on, along the path by the river Thames and then through our wild local nature reserve.
At first, I took pictures of stuff appearing in front of me. More to get to know the camera than considering any specific subject. Gradually, as I walked, I paid more attention to the details. With no plan other than to notice my surroundings more carefully. No agenda. No judgement. Just noticing.
Something caught my eye – a small patch of grass growing in a metal grid in the pavement. The bravery of that first seed to germinate in the smallest bit of dirt in a crevice in the metal. It wasn’t thriving. How could it? There wasn’t enough soil to grow luxuriously. Instead, it was forced to grow on the meanest of stuff. And yet there it was, a weed, surviving, just.
As I walked along the streets, I was struck by the contrast on either side of boundary walls separating well-tended gardens from the pavement outside. Gardens were home to robust plants, flowers, and trees. Reflecting the care and compassion poured on them by the homeowner. The result of careful purchasing, positioning when planting, and the liberal spreading of fertilisers. The results were stunning, but can they be considered as normal? On the other side of the wall was a very different world.
Scrawny plants, some wild, others garden escapees, both kept at bay by the wall from the promised land of the garden. Banned from growing in fertile soil. Forced to find the most ridiculous places to dip their toes. And yet they survive, some managing to sprout tiny, often misshapen, flowers. Few could be considered thriving.
I noticed how garden plants had escaped to the nether world of the exterior base of the boundary wall. They grew but the contrast between them and their siblings in the garden was striking. Instead of luxurious growth they too were stunted. A clear indication of the effect of the differences in their respective environments. It made me think of the artificial societal walls between the neurotypical mainstream and the neurodivergent minority. Mainstream thinkers may be nourished by their cultural norms but are they “normal”? These seemingly impregnable barriers separate the mainstream from the imagined “threats” posed by those who think differently
Elsewhere on my walk, I saw large trees growing by the pavement carrying big scars where branches had been removed earlier in its life. The tree grew but always carried the scars of juvenile insults. Reminiscent of adult neurodivergents carrying the invisible battle scars of living in a world not designed for them. They may look like they’re thriving, but they carry the wounds of a lifetime of large and small traumas. How do these avoidable wounds restrict them?
On entering the nature reserve, I witnessed what “weeds” could do if they had the right conditions to thrive in. No gardeners interfering. Plants typically removed from any self-respecting garden grew unchecked, reaching potential for growth and beauty unconsidered by those who impose horticultural norms on their own patches. Weeds thrive best when they grow in conditions suiting their biology. They thrive when gardeners let them grow. They thrive when they can grow at their own pace. Undisturbed.
How might neurodivergent people thrive? We often talk about accommodations the mainstream could make and how society can better support us. Gardeners already know how to do this. They take plants which would otherwise struggle and give them extra nutrition, maybe a propagator to germinate successfully and they care for them throughout their lives. In their early years, saplings might need physical support to help them through vulnerable times. What is so very different about nurturing and supporting neurodivergents? Nothing.
Committed gardeners who want their plants to grow expend time and effort to discover the right conditions for each species to thrive. What if society expended effort on all its children? Supporting their early years with the aim of discovering exactly what growth conditions help individuals thrive. Conditions and needs might change as they move from education into the workplace. Protecting them as much as possible from inequitable traumas that scar them for life and restrict their potential.
It's clear, society depends on neurodivergent minds, always has done and always will. Discovery, creativity, and innovation are the fruits of the neurodivergent mind’s labours. If humanity values these fruits, they need to nurture the neurodivergents who produce them, just as much as the gardener nurtures their plots. As our world becomes more volatile, unpredictable, complicated, and dangerous our world garden will come to depend on neurodivergent “weeds” seeing answers the mainstream mind cannot. But can they see that in time?
We know the conditions neurodivergent people thrive in, and we know the glorious fruits they produce. I believe it’s our continuing task to show mainstream society what they would gain if they co-created the best growth conditions. And what they will miss if they don’t.
We are moving inexorably from the “Why” to the “How”.
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