Islets of Order
March 13, 2007 by Kristina Chew, PhD
Filed under Health
Here is Daniel Tammet—who was diagnosed with Asperger syndrome at 25 years old and is the author of Born on a Blue Day: Inside the Extraordinary Mind of an Autistic Savant—on the “small cottage in a sleepy cul-de-sac” he lives in with his partner of six years, Neil Mitchell (from an article in the February 15th New York Times):
“The house is like my oasis. I structured it — the colors of it, the way the furniture is laid out. The way it feels, and the way I work — it’s very much a matter of routine, and it makes me feel calm and comfortable.”
My son Charlie lines up his utensils and a few more items prior to eating dinner and so (I think) creates small “islets” of order throughout our house. As we live with his grandparents and their live-in nurse, Charlie’s house-structuring is limited to a few places here and there—nonetheless, it does seem to achieve the same effect.
I’m reading Tammet’s book at the moment, and what has stuck with me is the enormous kindness and compassion his parents and teachers showed him. Granted I’m not halfway through, yet, but there’s such a tone of peace and tranquility that I find comforting. I love how his parents accept him and just accommodate his needs. It’s not an inconvenience to do things a certain way; his parents and teachers just accept him for who he is. I hope that my son will reflect on his childhood with the understanding that I loved him unconditionally and never wanted him to be any “different.”
That love and kindness and unquestioning, unwavering acceptance came through to me when I read it. It’s a book, one could say, very much about love; Tammet might write more effusively of his love for the numbers, but (by my reading) his feelings for his parents and sibilings (and partner and cat) come through with equal strength. Makes me think of how Charlie and I spend some good times before he goes to be with him watching photos on my computer and me sitting in his rocker chair with my journal and both of us laughing and swaying.
And national Pi Day is tomorrow…..
Kristina, how in the world did you know it was National Pi Day tomorrow?! That to me is amazing. How many people do you think know that tomorrow is National Pi Day?
One of my students in my Latin class is a chemistry/math major (with, he assured me, the most extensive collection of math t-shirts available)— we were talking about 3/15 being the Ides of March and the chem/math student grinned and said: “It’s Pi Day!” When I looked puzzled he said “3/14!”
I’ll let you know if he wears a pi t-shirt tomorrow……..
Speaking of dates, 5/4 is Star Wars Day, so mark your calendars now!
(May the Fourth be with you….)
(And I will be participating in a bit of a Pi Day celebration tomorrow evening.)
I’ll have to do someting for my Greek class, not that they think of 3.14 etc. when they see pi.
It’s not “the” most extensive unless he has this one:
“There are 10 types of people in this world; those who understand binary and those who don’t.” (10 is “2″ in binary/base 2.)
I’ll check tomorrow……
And, tomorrow’s Albert Einstein’s birthday…
Fitting one might say…
Jennifer, you’ve seen this t-shirt, yes? I have one. Wil Wheaton has one. I recently got this one, which I will probably wear a lot more.
Oh, and getting back to “Pi Day”, I guess I ought to wear this tomorrow!
I guess I work with geeks. It was on our bulletin board today that tomorrow was national pi day.
My comment on seeing that was I was waiting until 3-14-16 to really celebrate.
Shouldn’t that be…
…3-14-15 at 9:26:35?
(Who, me, a nerd?)
Ack! I meant 3-14-15 at 9:26:54 (rounding up from …535)
Ok, I am now adding a segment on pi to both my Latin and Greek classes tomorrow (today, 3-14)!
The “10 kinds of people) t-shirt is awesome. My daughter’s boyfriend has one. Yes, he’s a programmer.
We had some “pi” moments in my Latin class today: One student inevitably said “WHAT is pi?”. Whereupon the math major student gave a definition and then tried to provide some examples of practical illustrations (which were a bit beyond everyone else’s grasp at the moment, but we were working on Latin participles).