I find myself speaking for my son. I want him to answer for himself (but I'll still help out)

I know my son pretty well, I anticipate his needs, but his expressive abilities are limited. He depends almost exclusively on those who know him anticipating his needs. Beyond meeting his needs -- and beyond the creature comforts there's a strong desire in Nico to be amused, to have fun -- I wonder what he thinks. He tries to show me -- taking me by the hand and pointing to things until I finally get it. He can even share a joke -- repeatedly dropping something, or purposefully teasing me until I laugh as much as he does.

As with any child you want them to grow up to be able to express themselves and interact effectively with other people, to be fully realized people. Not to be too dark or gloomy about his prospects, I am mindful of the challenges he and other non-verbal people face.

It is an other side of history, the collective experience of the voiceless.

Those who are of the same mind, a part of our human experience, who measure their time on the earth and their treatment there as “here the people are kind” “ here the food is good and plentiful” “here the water flows clean and fresh” “here the bed is clean and dry and sleep sweet and peaceful” ‘here is the wonder of nature – wind, trees, fresh air, soft warm sand and the lap of the sea.’ ‘here is love.’

How do they the voiceless, the wordless, who may have little contact with each other, little if any social media, no collective expressive organ by which to measure, share and judge that which they experience? They answer to their names, they may have strong sense of self and identity, likes, dislikes, preferences, trajectories. They may be born to great fanfare but without a means of expression except through those of us who can experience them and share their legacy, they pass quickly in our society into relative obscurity.