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My reading through Stephen King’s The Stand: The Complete and Uncut Edition will most likely be slow this week, since I find that I am getting tired easily after my wisdom teeth operation. Last night, I proceeded through Chapter 35, which I did not finish. In the part that I read, Larry was with Rita, and Rita’s feet were getting bloody because she was walking for some distance in a certain kind of shoes, which are not conducive to walking. Larry is incredulous because her feet could get an infection and she could die, and she never even thought of that because, as a rich person, others took care of her throughout much of her life. Larry resents having to take care of her, yet he fights back in his mind the accusations he has heard from others that he is a taker and not a giver. He decides that he is responsible for Rita. But Rita leaves him after he gets mad at her.
While Larry may feel that Rita lacks common sense or does not think things through, or is not even aware of things that others take into consideration, Larry himself can be absent-minded at times. For example, he forgets to bring a flashlight. That reminded me of something I heard at an Asperger’s support group, in which someone was speculating about why people with Asperger’s get on the nerves of people who are ordinarily nice and cool-headed. His reason was that the nice and cool headed people are worried about their minds deteriorating, and seeing people with Asperger’s reminds them of that dim fact. Several people may take exception to this idea, for people with Asperger’s do not have a deteriorated mind; their mind actually works that well, and there are many with Asperger’s who have high IQs. But, at least in my experience, as I speak for myself as one who has the syndrome, I often struggle to have common sense or to see the big picture, for I focus on details. But others may have different experiences. I’m just saying that, in certain respects, I identify with Rita.
But I try not to beat myself up because I have to be taught things that may be instinctual knowledge to others. Is it even instinctual knowledge for others? Don’t we all have to learn things that we do not know?
