Why The Name?

So, you may be asking:

What’s the deal with the phrase, “A wish come clear?”

“A wish come clear” is the brainchild of my brother, Willie. He’s two years younger than me. He’s a brilliant pianist and humorist. He’s also autistic. He’s struggled with behavioral problems (including violence and self-injurious behavior) since puberty. Willie’s favorite humor involves purposeful mistakes. He loves plugging the ‘wrong’ word into the ‘right’ phrase, particularly if the phrase is from a Disney movie, i.e. “I’ve been dreaming of a wish come…clear!” or “A dream is a wish your…fart…makes!”

Here’s how I describe it in my (forthcoming) book:

“Willie’s ingenuity always amazes me, yet what’s more astonishing is how silly games got us through our worst times. There were car rides when all my parents and I could do was keep trying to make him laugh or he’d be banging his head against the windows. Granted, we had to time it right; we couldn’t just toss a joke in anywhere. We learned how to watch for signs of anger, how to spot a violent train of thought and give Willie’s mind other material to work with in time. It seemed as though he couldn’t use the angry part and the funny part of his mind at the same time. He could apologize and then throw a fork at you; he could take deep breaths and then punch a hole in the wall. But he couldn’t laugh and do those things. Many times, it was the mistakes, the ‘wrong’ phrases that saved us.”