Well into the twenty-first century, there is a growing emphasis placed upon embracing social and cultural diversity. Increasingly, people are rising to the occasion amidst global adversity. Politics and entertainment reflect this correct-thinking movement toward valuing individual differences and blending of communities. The time is ripe for positive change, and, more than ever before, people with a variety of ways of being are poised on the verge of an equal-rights movement.

In essence, people are all more alike than unlike. Human beings share greater similarities than differences in the way they live their lives, move through environments, and interact within relationships. And all people experience individual autisms — those neurological “blips” that temporarily waylay them without any known cause.

Can't Place Her?

For example, have you ever unexpectedly met someone familiar to you outside of the context in which you know that person but cannot think of her name at that moment? You should know the person's name because you've had occasion to interact with her at work, at church, in a class, or some other circumstance. But because you know her by association with a specific environment, your brain has cataloged her face with that situation only. You struggle to make the split-second switch to apply the same information to the new environment (the mall parking lot, for instance).

It can be embarrassing when you fail, and it may be only much later that your brain relaxes and the information comes to you readily. “Of course! Her name was Ellen! Why on earth couldn't I remember that in the first place?” you berate yourself. How frustrating it was at the time, being unable to call up immediate information — information already known to you. This concept of association will be further explored in Chapter 12 when the ways in which children with Asperger's commonly think, learn, and process information are examined.

Acting Out of Habit

Here's another example that most people can relate to that sheds light on the neurological workings of people with Asperger's: You may have experienced “gray time” while operating a car — that is, driving along a familiar route and arriving at your destination with absolutely no recall of the drive. Your brain has been on “autopilot” and you've executed the drive, from start to finish, completely by rote and seemingly without thinking. (This is similar to those occasions when you have been sitting and realize — or someone brings it to your attention — you have been unconsciously tapping your foot or shaking your leg.) In a twist on this example, you may have had occasion to deliberately deviate from your typical driving route to drop something off or pick something (or someone) up, and, again by rote, you arrive at your destination and realize you've totally forgotten about the change of routine. There has been a misfire in the brain-body connection. You then have to backtrack to make it right, losing additional time and likely escalating your frustration level.

In yet another commonality, have you ever been frustrated at being unable to locate an object and realize you've been holding it in your hand the entire time you've been searching? Both of these examples are the type of neurological experiences people with Asperger's deal with on a daily basis.

Stuck in Your Head

Finally, another neurological blip that underscores the ways we are all more alike than different occurs when you have a song “playing” in your head. It may or may not be a song of your choosing. If it is a song of your choosing, then at first replaying it and, perhaps, singing or moving along to the music is deliberate and even pleasurable. Later, when you are unable to banish the song from your brainwaves, it becomes a nuisance. It may even derail your thinking and routines. Some of you may have even been awakened in the middle of the night by the song and, patriotic though you may be, hearing “The Star-Spangled Banner” playing repeatedly at three o'clock in the morning is not pleasant or desirable.