A little radical?

Last Friday, I did something quite radical. I got a tatoo. Not a little butterfly on my ankle or a petite flower on my back easily hidden from the public. No, I got a rather large autism ribbon on my arm. Big and bold in all it's blue, red and yellow technicolor glory. It wasn't an impulsive decision. I had been thinking about it for almost a year. I'd would have probably gotten it sooner, only I was scared of the pain. I had even researched numbing agents. But when it came down to getting it, I decided that I wanted to feel it. Every scratch, pinch and poke. And it hurt. Not unbearingly, more annoyingly than anything. Especially, at the end when my arm was getting sore. It's actually more of annoyance now as it goes through the healing process. And it's much larger than I had originally imagined because it had to be to get all that intricate puzzle-piece detail into it as explained to me by the tattoo artist. So the $64,000 question that everyone, even my husband, keeps asking me, is why did I need to get this? Why would a 55 year old not very "tattooish" type person feel compelled to get this? I do confess I have another small tattoo gotten many years ago. But in general, I don't think anyone would peg me for the type. And here is the best answer I can give, because, to be honest, I don't think I really understand it completely myself: Autism has been an overriding theme in my life. Not only have I been living it 24-7 since my son was diagnosed in 1993, but it is my chosen profession which I selected many years before that. And I can't quite get my head around the fact that even though, it is widely known that 1 out of 88 children are being diagnosed with it in the year 2012, it's not the most important topic discussed on every TV, newspaper, blog, or any other media outlet. What the heck? If there was an epidemic of something else that appeared to be growing and growing year after year which had the affect of a life long possibly debilitating result which would require a society to basically support an entire entity of 1 out of 88 individuals wouldn't this be a huge thing? Remember the bird flu or swine flu thing? H1N1? I just can't understand it. Do the other 87 families really think their lives won't be affected at all? Oh really? Don't they pay taxes? And are we any closer to understanding what causes it? It seems that I read about another theory every week. But I'm not sure that in my lifetime we will know what is going on and how to stop it. And that makes me very sad. So that's one reason I got my tat. I'm sure there are multiple other reasons which I will be blogging about soon I'm sure.