In my freshman philosophy class at Yale, the professor told me that I asked the wrong questions. That was my first inkling I was an alien life form.

Some of my “wrongness” was easy to explain: It was 1971, and I was a “woman” in a place that started admitting females as “freshmen” only two years before. My male colleagues and teachers had never previously conceded any merit to the “female perspective.”

And most believed in inter-observer verifiability as the measure of “truth;” provided, of course, that the observers were neuro-typical males.  Oversimplifying, if a female’s perceptions, values or logic contradicted the male’s, the former were ignored. The neurodiverse were not even heard.

What I failed to understand until decades later was that most women bought into this dominant male rule. Even, gasp, other female attorneys. They thought there was one truth out there; they felt that those who saw things differently, were wrong.

But I always felt the universe was more complex than that.

I hope my stories introduce you to some of that complexity.