About running the world...

I have a world-class jazz pianist staying with me this week (Hod O’Brien - http://www.hodobrien.com/). He’s playing a few dates in the UK before flying back to the USA. He is great by the way! Truly wonderfully lyrical and vital. I would always rather spend time with individual people than stick to my routine, such as it is, and so I have fallen off the news wagon recently, but I gather that ‘They’ are making the usual mess of running the world. Again. Or is it ‘Still’?

Nonetheless, I am finding the time to continue my work. I had a talk with the son of a family this week (he has Asperger’s). In common with many others whom I have met, he readily admits that he wants nothing to do with emotion in argument, and hates any form of manipulation. He is very logical and willing to consider other points of view, very clear about the value of honesty and clarity, and is a gentle and creative young man whose values shine out of him. Of course he is finding it hard to discover the route his life will take (he’s about 22), but he is spending his time well, following his creative instincts and working hard. I know many others like him – nice honest people who would not harm a fly and who will try to do the right thing at all times.

I don’t want to suggest we elect him next time we get a chance to choose our great leaders, because politics is a deeply neuro-typical game, involving all the skills that are difficult for a person with Asperger’s to grasp. Anyway, I know that he would hate it and would be outsmarted by the complicated characters that seem to hang out there in the corridors of power: no, I just want to make the point that we neuro-typicals are not always right, and that sometimes the more distanced voice, coming from a less emotionally involved source can offer us something valuable.

My limited reading of the latest news and views is always accompanied by a little voice in my head nowadays saying ‘it doesn’t have to be like this!’. I suspect that many people with Asperger’s have more access to that voice than I do, and I hope that we can all come to learn how to shout it out loud.

In the meantime, I am off to find out more about the musician’s way of life – Hod is very well connected!