Not sure I can successfully explain this but I’m going to try.

It happened at Chipotle the other night when I was picking up dinner for the kids.

The server who helped me made eye contact as I walked up, but then seemed to sort of ignore me for another 60 seconds, before engaging. Through our whole interaction he seemed neutral, with minimal eye contact or verbal engagement. He didn’t seem to respond when I thanked him for his help at the end.

The whole experience had me a little off after that. But then as I waited to pay the cashier, it occurred to me my son sometimes interacts in sorta similar fashion.

My son was recently diagnosed with Level 1 (least severe) Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). His mom and I are on the front end of learning how to support him with this new information, and help him respond to this newly defined reality.

And so hmm…

It then occurred to me that maybe there were other factors at play with the Chipotle server I’d just interacted with.

Obviously I’ll likely never know if that server had ASD, or if we just didn’t click as two humans interacting for whatever other reason.

But that experience and the correlation of possible behavior explanation that occurred in my head had me walk out of the restaurant with a broader awareness.

It also gave me a new, different compassion to reframe a weird experience with a different understanding.

Main take away?

Check your assumptions. You might benefit from reframing things.