Why we keep on trying when it's hopeless

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Carly is an autistic child on the far end of the autistic spectrum, who has learned to communicate.  It turns out that a normal intelligence was locked behind an autistic interface.  It was with persistence and luck that a hole was opened for her to squirt a message to the outside world:  "There's a healthy intelligence in here!"

For me the message is that it's when things look hopeless is when it's time to try to learn the most.  Too often we give up, throw in the towel, and walk away.

There is also a time to take the work off of the loom, discard it, and start again.

I don't have the wisdom to always tell which is which.  Sometimes we CHOOSE to take on a project or person to try to fix up that person.  This might be a bad idea.

But sometimes life hands us a helpless or hopeless situation.  I think that the lesson of Carly is that unless we try, sometimes try a lot, we will miss opportunities to learn.

That's education!