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- Beany Brain #92: TL;DC (too long; didn't care) + Chris Packham Speaks
Beany Brain #92: TL;DC (too long; didn't care) + Chris Packham Speaks
Abigail Munday
May 06, 2026
Beany Brain: loving our jumping-bean brains!
Welcome to this issue of the Beany Brain! I hope today’s newsletter will bounce us up as we contemplate the upsides and challenges of being neurodivergent, a little beauty, some creativity, and just general yeehawesomeness.
Table of Contents
Photo by Abigail Munday
TL;DC (too long; didn’t care)
When age 50 intersects with perimenopause intersecting with neurodivergencies that might just intersect with being hangry or just plain angry at an increasingly erratic and chaotic and powermongering and unjust world…
You’re well on your way to sinking the Care Bear Boat.
Don’t get me wrong.
I still feel DEEPLY DEEPLY DEEPLY about so many things: immigrants, asylum seekers, homeless people, trafficked people, foster children who age out without scaffolding, injustice on any level and to any person, people on death row, abuse or murder victims, poverty, people selling the Big Issue, reading books (lots of books), clean air, clean water, the ocean floor, babies, lonely folks or elderly folks on their own, my own footprint in this world (whether carbon or otherwise).
My own footprint.
My own careprint.
While I still feel things at an intense level…
I’m feeling less obliged to worry about how others perceive me.
Thanks be to God.
So as my Care Bear Boat carrying the weighty lead of others’ expectations sails into the Middle Menopause Distance, my earthly footprint is growing lighter.
Whether my shoes are sideways on the ground while I capture that perfect photo…
Photo by a desperately embarrassed son
Or I’m looking up from footprint level…
Photo by Abigail Munday
(See? Weren’t the gymnastics worth it for that shot?)
These feet are made for walking, jumping, skipping, dancing, running without leaving leaden footprints. Kinda like Legolas skimming over the earth. And my anger-arrows are also pointed at the dark heart of evil.
And now this newsletter has gone from TL;DC to TL;TMM (too long; too many metaphors).
Ha Ha Haiku
A funny haiku for you every week in every newsletter, whether it’s one of my own or one I curate for you. HA. Ha. Haiku.
Photo by Abigail Munday
Chris Packham Speaks
Three years ago in the UK I watched a Chris Packham documentary about autism with my family. He’s a cool dude: a scientist, naturalist, nature photographer, nature documentary host, speaker, author, former punk in the 80s, and autistic. (He’s also had many threats on his life for standing up for wildlife, including a group of guys blowing up a car in front of his house.)
The documentary was called “Inside Our Autistic Minds” (2023).
I remember the opening scene well: He’s in a forest and suddenly there are something like laser lines between the trees and to all the leaves. Chris talked about being overwhelmed walking in the woods because he sees all the leaves, not just blobs of green.
(I used to see just green blobs, but that was before I got glasses at age 10. Then the trees grew leaves suddenly upon my exit from the optometrist’s office. Good old Dr. Ross on Lee Road.)
Anyway, when Chris Packham talked about the leaves, that’s when I started crying. Right there at the beginning of the series.
It’s a strange feeling to hear someone talk about your own experience.
Photo by Abigail Munday
So here he is talking about:
Not wanting a cure for autism
Believing that we’re not broken, just different
Liking being autistic
It’s hard but he wouldn’t change it
There not being an “epidemic” of autism diagnoses; just more awareness
And here’s Christ Packham as a punk:
If you’re interested, as I am, in reading his memoir, it’s called Fingers in the Sparkle Jar: A Memoir.
Photo by Abigail Munday
Yeehawesome!
Yeehawesome! is a happy-brain roundup in each issue of Beany Brain. What’s happening that’s good in brain land? What’s bringing me joy?
A fun Instagram page where you stop and dance for 1 minute!
This Guardian article that says teenagers are eschewing the tradition of hand shakes. I like that.
What a peaceful scene with boats and water: the Rockport Harbor, Maine, livecam. When I looked at it this afternoon, a little floofy dog was running around on the grass.
Quote of the Week
Sharon McMahon is an educator, podcaster, and author. Here’s her message to the 2026 graduates on her Instagram page, @sharonsaysso:
You are graduating into a world that can feel unbearably loud and strangely lonely. A world where cruelty is profitable and a thousand voices are waiting to tell you that caring is pointless and naive. Optimism seems scarce.
I want to send you out into the world with something stronger than easy optimism. Because easy optimism will not last. It collapses the first time life is unfair. It disappears the first time the plan falls apart, the institution fails, or the person you trusted disappoints you.
What you need is something better. You need a durable hope. Durable hope is not the belief that everything will work out. It is the decision to keep working when you have no assurance of your success. When hope is nothing more than a hand in the dark.
Durable hope does not ask you to pretend that the wounds of the world are not real. It looks directly at what is broken and refuses to let brokenness have the final word. It is what people have always reached for during the times that tried their souls, believing that what they did would matter, someday, and that none of their work for liberty would be lost.
A hard time is not the same as a hopeless time.
Do not let anyone make you feel foolish for loving a world that is still worth saving.
When someone tells you, “That’s just how things are,” answer them: “Maybe. But it’s not how they have to stay.”
Yes, these are the times that try us. So let the times try and find you faithful. Let them find you truthful. Let them find you tender and full of a durable hope.
You were given a life in a moment in history that needs witnesses, builders, repairers, and truth-tellers. Be one of them. I’ll be here cheering you on.
Beany Brownie Points and Extra Bonus Funniness
Wonderful Wednesday
Wonderful Wednesday was a day once a year in college when they would suddenly and surprisingly call off all classes and we’d play all day. The cafeteria provided special fun food and we’d do stuff outside like slip ‘n slides and jello wrestling in sumo suits. This segment of Beany Brain is dedicated to that memory of silliness and fun—no words, just a photo from the week that I’ve taken or found that reminds me to let the joy in. Since Beany Brain is published on Wednesday every week (at least, Wednesday in Japan), I hope you enjoy this Wonderful Wednesday.
Photo by Abigail Munday
Today’s Beany-full Summary:
I’m enjoying not feeling as pained as I used to about others’ expectations and perceptions of me.
Chris Packham is an autistic scientist in the UK who advocates for nature and neurodivergent people. I really appreciated his series called “Inside Our Autistic Minds” from 2023.
Go forth in Beany joy. What will help you feel yeehawesome this week?
Thank you for reading this installment of Beany Brain! You’re very welcome to hop on by any old time.
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