When Kindness Feels Protective Instead of Patronizing Earlier today at O’Reilly’s, something small but kinda big happened. Mikey stopped by and was showing some photos to Miranda and Chaz. One of them happened to have a girl completely nude in it. Mikey was about to show me, too — but Miranda quickly stepped in and told him, quite frankly, “Don’t show Caleb.” At first, it caught me off guard. She didn’t stop him from showing Chaz, just me. And yeah, a part of me wondered: Was it because I’m autistic? The answer is probably yes — and you know what? I’m okay with that. Because it didn’t come across as patronizing. It came across as protective. The way she said it felt direct, caring, and honestly, a little endearing. Being autistic means people sometimes see me as needing more shielding from certain things. That can feel othering — like I’m being singled out. But today, it didn’t feel that way. It felt like someone saw me, knew me, and cared enough to say “Nope, Caleb doesn’t...