Imagine you are five or six years old and one of your classmates comes up to you and says look at my Tonka truck! How do you respond? a. I have a helicopter b. I want some cookies c. My mom is mad at me today d. I rode a horse at the fair e. Thats a neat truck! Can I hold it? I was so used to living in my own world that I answered with whatever I had been thinking. If I was remembering riding a horse at the fair, it didnt matter if a kid came up to me and said look at my truck! or my mom is in the hospital! I was still going to answer, I rode a horse at the fair. The other kids words did not change the course of my thoughts. It was almost like I didnt hear him. But on some level I did hear, because I responded. Even though the response didnt make any sense to the person speaking to me. A family acquaintance is visiting your home. She tells your mother about the death of a neighbors son who was hit and killed by a train while playing on the tracks. You do not personally know the neighbor or her son. How would you react? What would you say or feel? I smiled at her wordsI knew they thought it was bad for me to be smiling, but I didnt know why I was grinning and I couldnt help it. I didnt feel joy or happiness. I didnt know Eleanor. And I had never met her son. So there was no reason for me to feel joy or sorrow on account of anything that might happen to them. Here is what went through my mind that summer day: Someone got killed. Wow! Im glad I didnt get killed. Im glad Varmint or my parents didnt get killed. Im glad all my friends are okay. He must have been a pretty dumb kid, playing on the train tracks. I would never get run over by a train like that. Im glad Im okay. At the end I smiled with relief. Aspergers is not a disease. Its a way of being. There is no cure, nor is there a need for one. -John Elder Robison