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In my last reading of The Unwritten Rules of Social Relationships, by Temple Grandin and Sean Barron, Sean talks about how he'd cope through repetitive rituals, how he would fixate on one thing on a time, and how he progressed socially when he began to be concerned about other people and curious about the world around him.
I could identify with this, at least somewhat. I've clung to rituals because they help me to cope, or they give me a sense of power over my environment, even though doing those rituals does not necessarily change my environment. I think of regular Bible study.
Moreover, on some level, I have a tendency to focus on one thing at a time. That is my challenge right now, as I go through academic books: I go through one book at a time, and, in doing so, I focus on the particular book that I am reading. But I have a hard time incorporating that book into a bigger picture, or taking a look at the bigger picture to see what I can contribute to scholarship that would be original. That's not to say that I'm a hopeless case----just that I need to set aside time to look at the forest, as opposed to focusing on the trees (both of which are important).
As far as concern for others and curiosity go, those are things for me to work on. At the same time, I'd say that I am curious. It's just that I'm curious about what interests me, not what doesn't interest me.
