August 5, 2014

My Dear Friends,

I am somewhat humbled by the experience I have just have returned home from and want you to know about it. On Monday morning I heard a young man from Japan focus his address to an audience of people very much connected to the world I live in.

Mark and the Communication Alliance' at Syracuse University

Naoki you may have seen in Wretches and Jabberers.  He and I both type to communicate because we have autism. Naoki did an excellent job of describing what it feels like when you have words in your head and no way to get them out.

He and I and many of us gathered in that room are connected to a tedious but effective form of communication. The multitude of pleasant outcomes from a conference like this one include better typers, sense of community and trust that people want to get beyond the simple idea that what you see is what you get.

You must keep looking deeper.

I am delighted you are reading this and hope you easily return again and again for castaway-no-longer advice from a communication strategist who will keep getting his words out there. 

Love time and it will love you back. 

Mark

the eternal optimist

July 29, 2014

Dear Good, New Blog Readers,

 I am here in Syracuse at the Institute for Communication and Inclusion, the door of communication for many people who type to communicate. I addressed an audience along with Tracy Thresher and Scott Brodie in a workshop about how typing has changed our lives.

I hope you enjoy it.

Mark

A fun thinker.

Mark Utter and Larry Bissonnette at the Summer Institute at Syracuse University’s
Institute on Communication and Inclusion.

I am Mark Utter from the great state of Vermont and I too am delighted to be back here in Syracuse with you again for another dose of typing love and forward moving communication. I am totally excited to be sharing the stage with my Green Mountain colleagues and our fabulous facilitators. I want to focus my time here today on what facilitated communication has done to my life. I think it so helps to describe my life.

In my movie I am in here which, incidentally, we have freshly printed copies of today here for sale, I address the audience with these words.

"I am Mark Utter.  I was born with some neurological differences that make it hard for me to be a participant in a world of spoken words. When I was young I was moored in an inaccessible sea.  I was forever wishing people would realize I was inside thinking and wanting them to know.

'I am in here!'

Luckily a man named Pascal arrived looking to find some sign of life in my lost boat. My heart leapt at this miracle."

It is true.

I spent many years of my life as an outsider and I did not want that so I kept sending out quiet requests for assistance. Pascal Cheng, of course, showed up and then my stellar work and communication partner, Emily Anderson. Emily and I have done some incredible work together and more is coming. I will end my talk with a report on that

Someone has more recently come into my life and that is my dear friend, mountain man Tracy Thresher. The power of my good friendship with Tracy is a new force of energy. Before this I relied heavily on the friendship, counsel and heavy handed manliness of my mentor Russ Bennett. How magical it now is to have a friend I share so much in common with. I love that we can connect and make astute comments to each other. We are from the same culture and yet we are no less manly than very loved George Clooney.

We talk about good wishes we have for housing that is conducive to the new men typing our thoughts has allowed us to become. I am heartened to learn there has been so much innovation in housing in Vermont for people like us. We want to ride that wave.

And now on to the big news.

I am proud to announce the formation of my company which is called Utter Communication Strategies. Its web site, www.utterenergy.org will promote our movie and current projects. It will also host my blog, Utterly Mark, and elaborate on my future endeavors. I hope you will log on and join our communication revolution.

Thank you all for being part of the life I have dreamed of for years.

We are all living in our motto of “Loving it all forward.”

---

Mark presented this speech at the Summer Institute at Syracuse University’s Institute on Communication and Inclusion on Monday July 28, 2014

For more information about Supported Typing and the ICI click here.

January 2, 2014

I am here at Speeder and Earl’s and it’s the start of a brand new year. I am excited good Emily is clear in her joyful heart and I am too.

I just met with Larry Bissonnette and it was an awesome start of a good friendship. Our ways of being human are very different and I think are both effective so it will be cool to see how we influence each other. I addressed him softly and he swore a bit till he realized I don’t want anything more than to be friends.

“Good.  Thanks for clearing that up.  You are okay in my book.  That’s cool.  You are a good friend.  Really Mark.  Yes. Yes.”

                            - Larry Bissonnette, a fellow typer

I am glad Emily heard Beethoven’s Ninth on New Year’s Day. A great home it is for Schiller’s poem. No one can survive this life without abiding love and a love for the power greater than themselves.

I am thinking about some ways I might use my skills to promote this without sounding like a fundamentalist preacher. Ranting like the guy who thought Emily would make a good preacher’s wife is not my style. So finding a home for my writings is my goal for this year while Emily gets her career moving.

Of course it is a given that I will screen “I am in here.” more and continue having wonderful conversations with people who come to see it. I am so proud that we produced that piece of work. As I wrote to Werner Herzog “My current film is rather predictable and only is meant to introduce me to the world and people who might want to really learn how I communicate.”

I am not sure what the future holds but I can only assume it will be even brighter with two bright suns in my life.

I am going to ask Emily to look up more often. Sure good pennies show up on the ground but the big money is found creating projects and the discipline to make them live.

Be well all.