A few years ago, a friend of ours with Asperger’s gave us a hand blender for Christmas. He was really excited when he gave it to us, pointing out “It’s 600 Watts – that’s more than my surround sound system!”.
I absolutely love the concept of comparing the two values; the comparison would never have occurred to me, but to do so adds a spark of brilliance to a humble food processor.
Sometimes people with abnormalities in the way they process ideas – such as autism or dyslexia – have a beautifully “outside-the-box” way of looking at the world. I have another friend with severe dyslexia who delights in making up new words, such as “Le Grange!” meaning “Brilliant”. He has an incredibly rational way of looking at life that somehow runs along completely different lines to mine, but results in very similar conclusions.
Sadly, the blender has just died – Katherine was using it, when a grinding noise occurred, and it caught fire – but as I mourn its passing, I thought I’d just use it to celebrate flashes of joy that can come from a change of perspective.
I believe some of the most gift people in the world have a slight form of Aspergers. This enables them to look at problems from a different perspective to the average person.
Very true. Or just generally: many of the people in the world we respect look at the world through different eyes: Martin Luther King Jnr, Ghandi, etc.