June 20, 2025 • 17 mins
In this special episode, James Guttman celebrates the release of his new book Hi World, I'm Dad and officially launches the video version of his podcast - available here on YouTube. He opens up about autism appreciation, what it truly means to love without conditions, and how his son Lucas, who is non-verbal with autism, has shaped his understanding of life, connection, and purpose. From surviving a heart attack and quintuple bypass to embracing his son’s unfiltered authenticity, James shares the powerful moments that led to his most personal work yet.
Catch new blogs every Monday and Wednesday at HiBlogImDad.com and follow James on social media @HiJamesGuttman.
It's Here! Get the book – “Hi World, I’m Dad: How Fathers Can Journey to Autism Awareness, Acceptance, and Appreciation” on audio, digital, or print.
Follow Us On Facebook and YouTube. Follow James Guttman on Instagram.
Also, be sure to read the blog that started it all - Hi Blog! I'm Dad.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
James Guttman (00:15):
I want apples.
It is a digital book.
It's available everywhere.
It's a long time coming.
I'm very excited and for thoseof you who are listening to this
on Spotify, I need a place foryou to find your podcast.
Thank you.
But also, he's not just Ty Dad,he's my dad.
(00:38):
You can see James Gutman.
This is the first week recordingvideo of the podcast.
Apparently, people do this, soI decided to do it.
Yeah, I got to make a few notes.
Make sure I don't grab mymicrophone with my hands
nervously for some bizarrereason.
But yeah, you can find this onYouTube.
(00:59):
I'm trying to figure out allthe ways we can do this.
But one of the things that Iliked the most about it was that
I got the opportunity now toshare videos and share clips of
some of the things that we talkabout here.
I got Lucas running around allbehind me.
There's a lot going on.
It's an exciting, exciting week.
I want to do more video.
That's probably one of the bigreasons.
(01:20):
Here is because I've talkedabout it before and I'll talk
about it again, especially withthis book coming out.
The whole idea of what I do hereand what I write about is
autism appreciation, and theidea is that there are parts of
my son's personality that arebeautiful because of, and not
despite, autism, and I know itsounds crazy every time I say
that, but that's the way it'salways portrayed when you watch
(01:41):
it in media.
Right, lookie, come here.
It's portrayed that like thiskid right here is going to.
He handed me his cup, he wantssome water, and now you can see
it.
It's always portrayed in a waythat a boy like my son has to do
something in the end that makeseveryone proud in this world,
whether he catches a touchdown,whether he's prom king, whether
(02:04):
he does something amazing.
He knows math, he knows science, he knows something that makes
everyone clap and applaud and atthe end of the day, I feel like
my son doesn't have to doanything.
Lucas is Lucas.
Lucas is quintessentially Lucas.
He's himself 100%.
He feels, he believes in thethings that he believes.
(02:25):
He feels things.
His emotions are stronger thananybody I've ever met.
They burn brighter than anyoneI've ever met in my life.
And that's not an exaggeration,that's not anything.
That's real.
Lucas doesn't mask anything.
I wrote a blog last year calledmy Nonverbal Son Can't Fake a
Smile, and it's so true.
(02:45):
Even now I'm like look, smile,smile, smile.
I mean don't smile, smile.
And he's like I'm like okay, no, smile.
And when he was little I usedto get upset about that.
I used to be like, oh, I can'tget any pictures of this kid.
I used to tell people all ofour pictures are candid and they
kind of are.
To take one smiling picture ofLucas, you either have to get
(03:06):
him in a happy state, and eventhen sometimes it's picture,
picture, picture, picture,picture.
To get the one, you know,there'll be a picture of him
with a big glowing smile.
And what people don't realizeis that we have to go through
all these different shots of hishead moving and him looking
around.
Lucas doesn't fake anything,which to me is one of the most
beautiful aspects of hispersonality.
(03:28):
I know what he's feeling.
I know how he is.
If he's happy, he smiles.
If he's sad, he cries.
And when he cries he cries realtears.
He doesn't cry to manipulate.
He doesn't cry to get something.
He doesn't want anything,nothing.
He just wants to be him.
He's never asked for a food hedidn't want.
(03:48):
He doesn't want anything,nothing, he just wants to be him
.
He's never asked for a food hedidn't want.
He's never asked for pizza, andthen when I give him the pizza,
he doesn't eat it and he goeswell, you wanted me to have this
pizza.
No, he wants what he wants.
He doesn't ask for anythingelse.
He doesn't understand it.
He doesn't understandmanipulation.
He doesn't understand ego.
He doesn't bully.
I don't know man.
My kid is just the purest soulI've ever met and one of the
reasons I want to have him onvideo and kind of show people a
(04:09):
little bit more.
I talked about this before whenI wrote the Huffington Post
article about two months ago now, almost two a month and a half
ago.
I wrote about not wanting acure for his autism, and that's
100%.
I still feel that way.
I mean it, and I got a lot ofpositive feedback.
(04:33):
But I did get some feedbackfrom people who seemed to assume
that my son's autism was highfunctioning or different than it
was, because in the minds ofmany I couldn't possibly say I
don't want to cure for my son'sautism unless it required little
to no work on my part.
It does require a lot of workon my part.
In fact, people would come backto me with this laundry list of
things.
Have you ever met a family whohad a kid who did this, this,
this, this, and I'm like, yeah,me, me, me, me, me.
(04:55):
I do all of those things for myson and I still don't want to
cure for my son's autism.
I want him to be him.
Lucas is him.
Lucas is himself.
Lucas is perfect the way he is.
So my goal in doing some ofthese videos and showing you the
family a little bit more, sopeople can get an idea of who he
is and the reality of oursituation and how you can have a
(05:16):
situation where for a lot ofpeople this would be kind of a
worst case scenario and for usit's perfect, it's who we are,
it's what we have in our life.
Lucas has been like this sincewe met him and we love him.
So I don't want to change him.
I don't want a different kid.
I don't want your kid, you know, I want my own kid.
So I write this book and I tellyou the stories about him and
(05:38):
I'm going to hold it up here forthe camera If you're not
watching it.
That's where it is.
High World, I'm Dad, is ourstory right?
So I talk about the discoveryof him having autism, coming to
grips with it, accepting it,understanding it.
I talk about my own personalheart surgery, which it was
(05:59):
always amazing to me.
Whenever I tell the story topeople, that's always the big
part of it is that I obsessedabout his diagnosis.
I obsessed with the concern andthe worry of you know, what's
this going to mean for ourfamily?
What's it going to mean forLucas?
What happens if he never speaks?
How are we ever going to getthrough it?
And I thought about it nonstop,day in, day out, over and over
(06:19):
again, until the day I had aheart attack.
Or I should say, the day that Ihad the heart attack, that I
actually went to the walk-incenter, for I had been having
heart attacks for years, noteven realizing it, fred Stanford
, just walking around, like youknow, it's the big one.
And I went to the walk-incenter and I found out I had a
having quintuple bypass and itcompletely rocked my world.
(06:40):
I was 35.
I wasn't morbidly obese, I wasnot obese, I was just a guy.
And I was told by the doctorthose guys who walk around
totally healthy and then theydrop dead at 40, that was going
to be you.
Well, now I'm years removedfrom 40 and I'm alive.
But the thing that I realizedwhen I went into the hospital,
(07:01):
for that was that, thisobsession that I had about my
son and will he speak and willhe do these things that thing
that I couldn't stop thinkingabout.
I stopped thinking about and Ifocused entirely on my heart and
I focused entirely on seeing mykids again, olivia and Lucas,
and getting back to them andgetting back to the life that I
was convinced was over.
(07:21):
I mean, I was convinced it wasover.
That's not even.
That's not one of those thingswhere, like I was worried about
it being, you know, I thoughtwhen I was told quintuple bypass
that chances are I was going todie, I didn't know anything
about it.
Like you have to remember, thiswas brand new.
This was not something I hadbeen dealing with, something
that I was concerned about,something that anyone ever even
talked to me about.
This was new.
(07:42):
This was a shocking moment forme to wrap my head around and
when I came out, I had a newlease on life and a new desire
to just be a part of my kids'lives, wholeheartedly, no matter
what.
I didn't care if Lucas couldtalk or not, I didn't care what
anybody could do, I just wantedmy kids.
And it was that first day ofreally, instead of correcting
(08:05):
the way he played with his toysand instead going and sitting
with him and showing him that Iwanted to play with him the way
he did, I wanted to understandwhy was he looking at a glare in
the mirror, why was he lookingin the windows, why was he doing
the clap, why was he doingthese different things he was
doing?
And that was the day that hecame over and he gave me a hug
and I don't know just changed,changed everything.
(08:26):
So that's what this book isabout.
This book is about discoveringthat.
This book is about what autismappreciation means.
I've talked about it before.
How blessed I am that I had achance to do this now.
Had I written this book when Ifirst pitched it back in 2017,
when this blog first began thiswould have been a different book
.
It would not have been asconcrete about autism
appreciation as it is.
(08:47):
It would have been a lot more,I think, standing against people
.
Don't pity me.
That was the big one.
Don't pity me.
I don't want your pity.
I get very upset about nothaving people pity me.
It's very similar to autismappreciation, but it's different
in so many ways and I'm gladthat I had the opportunity to
write the book now, when I feelthis way and share it with you
(09:08):
guys.
And I got to tell you theresponse, even just in the weeks
leading up to this or just inthe years of writing this blog,
has been overwhelming.
You know, I came from adifferent world.
I came from a world where Iwrote about pro wrestling.
I've written about alldifferent things and I'm used to
an audience that sometimes canbe a little aggressive and
abrasive.
And if you I said it before,I'll say it a million times man,
(09:29):
try writing a wrestling articleand accidentally saying that
Rick Martel fought Jake theSnake at WrestleMania 6 instead
of 7, and someone will write youan email telling you you are
the stupidest person that everexisted.
So I was waiting for thesecrazy emails of people you're a
kid, this and that I was likewhat am I going to do?
What am I going to do ifsomebody says that about my kid?
(09:51):
And just like when he was born,just like when he was little,
and I was worried about somebodysaying something to us in
public and am I going to have tofight everybody in this
restaurant and preparing myselffor these battles that never
happened.
Those battles never happenedeither.
Nobody really did that.
Sure, I've had trolls here andthere say this or that.
By and large, 99.9% of thefeedback to this blog has made
(10:16):
me smile and it's made me proud,and it's made me realize that
we really made the right choiceand putting our story out there
and sharing it with everybody.
It's done good for the peoplereading.
It's done good, I think, forLucas, it's done good for me,
it's done good for everybody.
And when I came out of thathospital after my surgery, that
(10:39):
was my goal.
My goal was to do right byeveryone, to put more good into
the world than I was taking out.
And I'll tell you, in the last13 years of my life, I feel like
I've strived to do that andhopefully I have, and at the end
of the day, I could be proud.
I feel like this is my legacy.
(11:01):
This is something that I canleave behind for those to see,
for people to understand my son,understand our story.
Keep in mind too, this is not aguide to how to raise a kid with
autism.
Here you go, buddy.
This is a dead iPad.
Oh no, hang on one second,buddy.
We're going to finish up.
This is a dead iPad.
Oh no, hang on one second,buddy.
(11:21):
We're going to finish up.
This is just our story.
So, right here, this is justour story and this is what we do
and the stories that I sharehere.
They may relate to you, theymay not relate to you.
They might be great.
They might not be great At theend of the day, though, hang on
Now.
Normally that would be one ofthose moments where I just kind
of edited it out.
But now, you know, dead iPad,you get another iPad.
(11:44):
So I'm back, though.
We're back with a new iPad,this collection of stories I
tell here.
I've said from the beginning I'mnot an autism parenting expert.
I don't know anything aboutparenting your kid, I know my
kid.
You might have a different kid.
You do have a different kid.
I tell you how pure my son'ssoul is, how wonderful he is,
and every once in a while I'llget a parent going my kid isn't
(12:07):
like that and I go.
That's sad.
I don't know, maybe your kidisn't like that.
I don't know your kid, I knowmy kid.
So my stories about my kid,these are the stories that I
tell.
Hopefully you can get somethings out of there that you can
relate to people all the time.
This is just like my grandson,this is just like my son Puts a
smile on my face, lets me knowthat people could take a little
bit of our life and apply it totheir own.
(12:33):
But also, by the same token,it's a collection of stories,
and you could read what I'vegone through.
I don't know, just understandthat journey, and I think the
journey is different for everysingle person.
But I think, at the end of theday, the one constant and the
one thing that I wanted to putout there when I wrote this, and
the one thing that I've alwaystalked about, is that it's
important to just know your kidand accept your kid, believe in
your kid.
Not try to change your kid, youknow.
Granted, teach them, help them,make them the best version of
(12:56):
them they can be, but at the endof the day, you know that's who
you have.
You love them.
I love my boy so much.
He's um, I don't know.
He's just one of the, the twogreatest people in my life and
I've been so lucky to have thatopportunity to have these two
kids who you know one isneurotypical, um, one is
(13:17):
non-verbal, with autism, andbeing able to have those
separate relationships with thetwo of them and understand how
special it can really be to havethat type of a relationship
with someone.
I mean Lucas and I.
There's no words that areneeded, I just kind of you know,
you make a face, you make alook, you do a hand signal more,
or you know, want to eat, youknow give me.
(13:39):
I mean, I could do these allday long, just keep tapping
myself, but we have so manygestures that we use and so many
different things that we usethat nonverbal has not been an
issue for a long time.
I mean, granted, don't get mewrong, there's definitely things
that I wish we could relate alittle bit more, and thankfully
we have the communication deviceand things like that.
But it's not the end of theworld, and that's what this book
(14:02):
was.
This, that, but it's not theend of the world and that's what
this book was.
This book was written by aperson who at one point thought
it was the end of the world anddiscovered that it wasn't the
end of the world.
In fact, him and his sister,they're the center of my world
and I'm incredibly lucky to havethem.
So thank you.
Thank you for reading Hi WorldI'm Dad.
Thanks for picking it up,whether you got it on audiobook,
digital print, however youfound it, please do me a favor,
(14:26):
rate it, send me over yourthoughts, give a review.
Do all that good stuff too.
And while you're here, also dome a favor Like subscribe, tell
your friends, tell your enemies,tell anybody you've ever met
who might want to know somethingabout someone with autism Maybe
(14:48):
it's a relative or somethinglike that.
Tell them about this book,check it out.
I want to do my part to reallyjust share my son with the world
and help everyone understandhow wonderful this kid is,
because I don't know.
For a long time it felt likeour big secret of how great this
kid was.
People would look at me and belike, oh, that was Lucas, and
I'd be like he's freaking great.
You know you can't say that.
People are like, oh, he'stalking.
I go no, he's not talking, he'sgreat, I love that kid.
(15:08):
So, yeah, so this is my chanceto tell the world that.
Thank you.
That does it for me.
Guys, I'm going to be back.
Do me a favor.
Highblogomdadcom Monday,wednesdays new blogs.
Go there, read them everysingle week.
It's on there, not just onFacebook and Instagram.
It is on highblogomdadcom.
It is also on highpodomdadcomEvery single Friday.
(15:29):
This podcast on Spotify, onevery single place you find
podcasts and, of course, highWorld Om Dad.
This is everywhere Amazon,spotify, audible, you name it.
They have High World Om Dad.
That's there too.
I am on social media at HiJames Gutman Hi James Gutman,
h-i, not Hi James Gutman.
And yeah, and let's take thisjourney together.
There's so much more to comeand so many things I'm excited
(15:51):
about.
Until next time, james Gutmansaying be well, bye-bye, I'm Dad
, thank you, I'll see you nexttime.
I want apples.
It is a digital book.
It's available everywhere.
It's a long time coming.
I'm very excited and for thoseof you who are listening to this
on Spotify, I need a place foryou to find your podcast.
Thank you.
But also, he's not just Ty Dad,he's my dad.
(00:38):
You can see James Gutman.
This is the first week recordingvideo of the podcast.
Apparently, people do this, soI decided to do it.
Yeah, I got to make a few notes.
Make sure I don't grab mymicrophone with my hands
nervously for some bizarrereason.
But yeah, you can find this onYouTube.
(00:59):
I'm trying to figure out allthe ways we can do this.
But one of the things that Iliked the most about it was that
I got the opportunity now toshare videos and share clips of
some of the things that we talkabout here.
I got Lucas running around allbehind me.
There's a lot going on.
It's an exciting, exciting week.
I want to do more video.
That's probably one of the bigreasons.
(01:20):
Here is because I've talkedabout it before and I'll talk
about it again, especially withthis book coming out.
The whole idea of what I do hereand what I write about is
autism appreciation, and theidea is that there are parts of
my son's personality that arebeautiful because of, and not
despite, autism, and I know itsounds crazy every time I say
that, but that's the way it'salways portrayed when you watch
(01:41):
it in media.
Right, lookie, come here.
It's portrayed that like thiskid right here is going to.
He handed me his cup, he wantssome water, and now you can see
it.
It's always portrayed in a waythat a boy like my son has to do
something in the end that makeseveryone proud in this world,
whether he catches a touchdown,whether he's prom king, whether
(02:04):
he does something amazing.
He knows math, he knows science, he knows something that makes
everyone clap and applaud and atthe end of the day, I feel like
my son doesn't have to doanything.
Lucas is Lucas.
Lucas is quintessentially Lucas.
He's himself 100%.
He feels, he believes in thethings that he believes.
(02:25):
He feels things.
His emotions are stronger thananybody I've ever met.
They burn brighter than anyoneI've ever met in my life.
And that's not an exaggeration,that's not anything.
That's real.
Lucas doesn't mask anything.
I wrote a blog last year calledmy Nonverbal Son Can't Fake a
Smile, and it's so true.
(02:45):
Even now I'm like look, smile,smile, smile.
I mean don't smile, smile.
And he's like I'm like okay, no, smile.
And when he was little I usedto get upset about that.
I used to be like, oh, I can'tget any pictures of this kid.
I used to tell people all ofour pictures are candid and they
kind of are.
To take one smiling picture ofLucas, you either have to get
(03:06):
him in a happy state, and eventhen sometimes it's picture,
picture, picture, picture,picture.
To get the one, you know,there'll be a picture of him
with a big glowing smile.
And what people don't realizeis that we have to go through
all these different shots of hishead moving and him looking
around.
Lucas doesn't fake anything,which to me is one of the most
beautiful aspects of hispersonality.
(03:28):
I know what he's feeling.
I know how he is.
If he's happy, he smiles.
If he's sad, he cries.
And when he cries he cries realtears.
He doesn't cry to manipulate.
He doesn't cry to get something.
He doesn't want anything,nothing.
He just wants to be him.
He's never asked for a food hedidn't want.
(03:48):
He doesn't want anything,nothing, he just wants to be him
.
He's never asked for a food hedidn't want.
He's never asked for pizza, andthen when I give him the pizza,
he doesn't eat it and he goeswell, you wanted me to have this
pizza.
No, he wants what he wants.
He doesn't ask for anythingelse.
He doesn't understand it.
He doesn't understandmanipulation.
He doesn't understand ego.
He doesn't bully.
I don't know man.
My kid is just the purest soulI've ever met and one of the
reasons I want to have him onvideo and kind of show people a
(04:09):
little bit more.
I talked about this before whenI wrote the Huffington Post
article about two months ago now, almost two a month and a half
ago.
I wrote about not wanting acure for his autism, and that's
100%.
I still feel that way.
I mean it, and I got a lot ofpositive feedback.
(04:33):
But I did get some feedbackfrom people who seemed to assume
that my son's autism was highfunctioning or different than it
was, because in the minds ofmany I couldn't possibly say I
don't want to cure for my son'sautism unless it required little
to no work on my part.
It does require a lot of workon my part.
In fact, people would come backto me with this laundry list of
things.
Have you ever met a family whohad a kid who did this, this,
this, this, and I'm like, yeah,me, me, me, me, me.
(04:55):
I do all of those things for myson and I still don't want to
cure for my son's autism.
I want him to be him.
Lucas is him.
Lucas is himself.
Lucas is perfect the way he is.
So my goal in doing some ofthese videos and showing you the
family a little bit more, sopeople can get an idea of who he
is and the reality of oursituation and how you can have a
(05:16):
situation where for a lot ofpeople this would be kind of a
worst case scenario and for usit's perfect, it's who we are,
it's what we have in our life.
Lucas has been like this sincewe met him and we love him.
So I don't want to change him.
I don't want a different kid.
I don't want your kid, you know, I want my own kid.
So I write this book and I tellyou the stories about him and
(05:38):
I'm going to hold it up here forthe camera If you're not
watching it.
That's where it is.
High World, I'm Dad, is ourstory right?
So I talk about the discoveryof him having autism, coming to
grips with it, accepting it,understanding it.
I talk about my own personalheart surgery, which it was
(05:59):
always amazing to me.
Whenever I tell the story topeople, that's always the big
part of it is that I obsessedabout his diagnosis.
I obsessed with the concern andthe worry of you know, what's
this going to mean for ourfamily?
What's it going to mean forLucas?
What happens if he never speaks?
How are we ever going to getthrough it?
And I thought about it nonstop,day in, day out, over and over
(06:19):
again, until the day I had aheart attack.
Or I should say, the day that Ihad the heart attack, that I
actually went to the walk-incenter, for I had been having
heart attacks for years, noteven realizing it, fred Stanford
, just walking around, like youknow, it's the big one.
And I went to the walk-incenter and I found out I had a
having quintuple bypass and itcompletely rocked my world.
(06:40):
I was 35.
I wasn't morbidly obese, I wasnot obese, I was just a guy.
And I was told by the doctorthose guys who walk around
totally healthy and then theydrop dead at 40, that was going
to be you.
Well, now I'm years removedfrom 40 and I'm alive.
But the thing that I realizedwhen I went into the hospital,
(07:01):
for that was that, thisobsession that I had about my
son and will he speak and willhe do these things that thing
that I couldn't stop thinkingabout.
I stopped thinking about and Ifocused entirely on my heart and
I focused entirely on seeing mykids again, olivia and Lucas,
and getting back to them andgetting back to the life that I
was convinced was over.
(07:21):
I mean, I was convinced it wasover.
That's not even.
That's not one of those thingswhere, like I was worried about
it being, you know, I thoughtwhen I was told quintuple bypass
that chances are I was going todie, I didn't know anything
about it.
Like you have to remember, thiswas brand new.
This was not something I hadbeen dealing with, something
that I was concerned about,something that anyone ever even
talked to me about.
This was new.
(07:42):
This was a shocking moment forme to wrap my head around and
when I came out, I had a newlease on life and a new desire
to just be a part of my kids'lives, wholeheartedly, no matter
what.
I didn't care if Lucas couldtalk or not, I didn't care what
anybody could do, I just wantedmy kids.
And it was that first day ofreally, instead of correcting
(08:05):
the way he played with his toysand instead going and sitting
with him and showing him that Iwanted to play with him the way
he did, I wanted to understandwhy was he looking at a glare in
the mirror, why was he lookingin the windows, why was he doing
the clap, why was he doingthese different things he was
doing?
And that was the day that hecame over and he gave me a hug
and I don't know just changed,changed everything.
(08:26):
So that's what this book isabout.
This book is about discoveringthat.
This book is about what autismappreciation means.
I've talked about it before.
How blessed I am that I had achance to do this now.
Had I written this book when Ifirst pitched it back in 2017,
when this blog first began thiswould have been a different book
.
It would not have been asconcrete about autism
appreciation as it is.
(08:47):
It would have been a lot more,I think, standing against people
.
Don't pity me.
That was the big one.
Don't pity me.
I don't want your pity.
I get very upset about nothaving people pity me.
It's very similar to autismappreciation, but it's different
in so many ways and I'm gladthat I had the opportunity to
write the book now, when I feelthis way and share it with you
(09:08):
guys.
And I got to tell you theresponse, even just in the weeks
leading up to this or just inthe years of writing this blog,
has been overwhelming.
You know, I came from adifferent world.
I came from a world where Iwrote about pro wrestling.
I've written about alldifferent things and I'm used to
an audience that sometimes canbe a little aggressive and
abrasive.
And if you I said it before,I'll say it a million times man,
(09:29):
try writing a wrestling articleand accidentally saying that
Rick Martel fought Jake theSnake at WrestleMania 6 instead
of 7, and someone will write youan email telling you you are
the stupidest person that everexisted.
So I was waiting for thesecrazy emails of people you're a
kid, this and that I was likewhat am I going to do?
What am I going to do ifsomebody says that about my kid?
(09:51):
And just like when he was born,just like when he was little,
and I was worried about somebodysaying something to us in
public and am I going to have tofight everybody in this
restaurant and preparing myselffor these battles that never
happened.
Those battles never happenedeither.
Nobody really did that.
Sure, I've had trolls here andthere say this or that.
By and large, 99.9% of thefeedback to this blog has made
(10:16):
me smile and it's made me proud,and it's made me realize that
we really made the right choiceand putting our story out there
and sharing it with everybody.
It's done good for the peoplereading.
It's done good, I think, forLucas, it's done good for me,
it's done good for everybody.
And when I came out of thathospital after my surgery, that
(10:39):
was my goal.
My goal was to do right byeveryone, to put more good into
the world than I was taking out.
And I'll tell you, in the last13 years of my life, I feel like
I've strived to do that andhopefully I have, and at the end
of the day, I could be proud.
I feel like this is my legacy.
(11:01):
This is something that I canleave behind for those to see,
for people to understand my son,understand our story.
Keep in mind too, this is not aguide to how to raise a kid with
autism.
Here you go, buddy.
This is a dead iPad.
Oh no, hang on one second,buddy.
We're going to finish up.
This is a dead iPad.
Oh no, hang on one second,buddy.
(11:21):
We're going to finish up.
This is just our story.
So, right here, this is justour story and this is what we do
and the stories that I sharehere.
They may relate to you, theymay not relate to you.
They might be great.
They might not be great At theend of the day, though, hang on
Now.
Normally that would be one ofthose moments where I just kind
of edited it out.
But now, you know, dead iPad,you get another iPad.
(11:44):
So I'm back, though.
We're back with a new iPad,this collection of stories I
tell here.
I've said from the beginning I'mnot an autism parenting expert.
I don't know anything aboutparenting your kid, I know my
kid.
You might have a different kid.
You do have a different kid.
I tell you how pure my son'ssoul is, how wonderful he is,
and every once in a while I'llget a parent going my kid isn't
(12:07):
like that and I go.
That's sad.
I don't know, maybe your kidisn't like that.
I don't know your kid, I knowmy kid.
So my stories about my kid,these are the stories that I
tell.
Hopefully you can get somethings out of there that you can
relate to people all the time.
This is just like my grandson,this is just like my son Puts a
smile on my face, lets me knowthat people could take a little
bit of our life and apply it totheir own.
(12:33):
But also, by the same token,it's a collection of stories,
and you could read what I'vegone through.
I don't know, just understandthat journey, and I think the
journey is different for everysingle person.
But I think, at the end of theday, the one constant and the
one thing that I wanted to putout there when I wrote this, and
the one thing that I've alwaystalked about, is that it's
important to just know your kidand accept your kid, believe in
your kid.
Not try to change your kid, youknow.
Granted, teach them, help them,make them the best version of
(12:56):
them they can be, but at the endof the day, you know that's who
you have.
You love them.
I love my boy so much.
He's um, I don't know.
He's just one of the, the twogreatest people in my life and
I've been so lucky to have thatopportunity to have these two
kids who you know one isneurotypical, um, one is
(13:17):
non-verbal, with autism, andbeing able to have those
separate relationships with thetwo of them and understand how
special it can really be to havethat type of a relationship
with someone.
I mean Lucas and I.
There's no words that areneeded, I just kind of you know,
you make a face, you make alook, you do a hand signal more,
or you know, want to eat, youknow give me.
(13:39):
I mean, I could do these allday long, just keep tapping
myself, but we have so manygestures that we use and so many
different things that we usethat nonverbal has not been an
issue for a long time.
I mean, granted, don't get mewrong, there's definitely things
that I wish we could relate alittle bit more, and thankfully
we have the communication deviceand things like that.
But it's not the end of theworld, and that's what this book
(14:02):
was.
This, that, but it's not theend of the world and that's what
this book was.
This book was written by aperson who at one point thought
it was the end of the world anddiscovered that it wasn't the
end of the world.
In fact, him and his sister,they're the center of my world
and I'm incredibly lucky to havethem.
So thank you.
Thank you for reading Hi WorldI'm Dad.
Thanks for picking it up,whether you got it on audiobook,
digital print, however youfound it, please do me a favor,
(14:26):
rate it, send me over yourthoughts, give a review.
Do all that good stuff too.
And while you're here, also dome a favor Like subscribe, tell
your friends, tell your enemies,tell anybody you've ever met
who might want to know somethingabout someone with autism Maybe
(14:48):
it's a relative or somethinglike that.
Tell them about this book,check it out.
I want to do my part to reallyjust share my son with the world
and help everyone understandhow wonderful this kid is,
because I don't know.
For a long time it felt likeour big secret of how great this
kid was.
People would look at me and belike, oh, that was Lucas, and
I'd be like he's freaking great.
You know you can't say that.
People are like, oh, he'stalking.
I go no, he's not talking, he'sgreat, I love that kid.
(15:08):
So, yeah, so this is my chanceto tell the world that.
Thank you.
That does it for me.
Guys, I'm going to be back.
Do me a favor.
Highblogomdadcom Monday,wednesdays new blogs.
Go there, read them everysingle week.
It's on there, not just onFacebook and Instagram.
It is on highblogomdadcom.
It is also on highpodomdadcomEvery single Friday.
(15:29):
This podcast on Spotify, onevery single place you find
podcasts and, of course, highWorld Om Dad.
This is everywhere Amazon,spotify, audible, you name it.
They have High World Om Dad.
That's there too.
I am on social media at HiJames Gutman Hi James Gutman,
h-i, not Hi James Gutman.
And yeah, and let's take thisjourney together.
There's so much more to comeand so many things I'm excited
(15:51):
about.
Until next time, james Gutmansaying be well, bye-bye, I'm Dad
, thank you, I'll see you nexttime.
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