Brilliant Autism

I love that I have several autistic friends. They tend to teach the rest of us a variety of lessons, like patience, acceptance, and thinking outside of the box, to name a few. Most aren't socially 'normal' in their interactions with people, which comes across as unfriendly much of the time... the lack of eye contact, the poor interaction and difficulty in reading our facial expressions. For many, the world looks and sounds way too loud and fast for their senses. I think it's like their brain is taking in way more than the rest of us, but not able to process it, so they end up shutting out a lot of it.

But it's not that they are not smart or that they are unsocial; they just interpret, and interact with, the world differently than the rest of us 'normal' folks.

I met Anthony at the ARC when I started working there. He is a very handsome 30 yr old, and such an interesting person to be with. He might have some social skills he needs to polish, but he has an absolute genius for remembering everyone's age and birthday. Even if we haven't talked in over a year, he remembers not just MY age and birthday

("You just had your birthday, you are 57 now, right Robin?" "Yes, thanks so much for remembering, Ant.")

he also remembers Jim's birthday - and I don't think he's even met him.

Kathleen just remembers facts about people and thinks about them a lot, so she always has a whole passel of questions to pepper you with when she next sees you. Like when I went out of town - when I got back she immediately asked all the questions she'd thought about while I was away: Did I drive or did I fly? Did I take a van to the airport? Did I stay in a hotel? Did I get to go to the beach? Where did I eat? She will keep asking until you tell her that's enough questions for today. And sometimes she's not done, so it's painful for her to have to drop it. (She stayed a week with a friend of mine, who told me later, "Robin... she is just like RAINMAN!")

My friend Kraig remembers calendar items - he's got all the birthdays down and remembers what day of the week they will be on, as well as the whole Suns schedule for the season. He remembers details about the various players, too. But his way of telling these facts comes out randomly as the thoughts jet through his mind. I will hear about his father's softball team winning, then that his mother made cookies, then something about the new fellow just traded in from Boston, then about some singer who was on Ellen 'Generous.

I think the really amazing folks who've uncovered their true genius, whom we call savants, are just the most fascinating.

Like this fellow, Stephen Wiltshire, who can remember a WHOLE CITY as seen from the air, and then draw it all out in a huge, accurate, detailed mural. That is Rome, above. Our minds can't even comprehend the brilliance of it, it seems hard to accept that the human brain could even do such a thing, but he's a walking, talking example that can't be denied.

Today I watched this little vid - I think it is from 2010, a 60 Minutes report on Derek in England, who is an astounding musical prodigy. If you have 14 minutes to spare and watch it, you will come to appreciate what amazing creatures we humans can be. He's got the very best of certain things just incredibly concentrated and magnified. Derek Paravicini

And it's amazing all the more since he was born premature and extremely tiny, AND blind... yet he has amazing abilities and qualities we wish more humans had.
His dad offers in the piece,

"They say 'Good comes out of bad.' Well it certainly has in Derek's case. Without knowing it, he's done more good than any of us will ever do."
And while I know what he means in that little colloquialism, I don't think you could, in retrospect, find any bad here whatsoever.