Thursday, August 16, 2007

An Aspie's Perspective

The August 20 issue of the New Yorker has a wonderful essay called "Parallel Play" by Tim Page. He writes a wonderful first person account of life with Asperger's. Page is a Pulitzer Prize winning classical music critic for the Washington Post. Unfortunately, this essay is not available online. Here are a few excerpts:
"In the years since the phrase became a cliche, I have received any number of compliments for my supposed ability to 'think outside the box'. Actually, it has been a struggle for me to perceive just what these "boxes" were - why they were there, why other people regarded them as important, where the borderlines might be, how to live safely within and without them."

"A friend published a sweet autobiography entitled "Thank You, Everyone," in which she expressed gratitude to everybody who had influenced her...If I were to create a similar book, I would call it "Sorry, Everyone" and apologize for my youthful cluelessness..."

"...I cannot pretend that Asperger's has not made much of my existence miserable and isolated (how will I get to sleep tonight?). I hope that young Aspies, informed by recent literature on the subject, will find the world somewhat less challenging than I have."

No comments: