Daryl's Blog

Today it's time to write about Penelope Trunk. I wanted to write about her for months, but today I read one of her old blogs and want to quote the way it ends. So, I hear you ask, what's so special about Penelope Trunk?

Penelope has Asberger's. This makes life interesting for her. She frequently gets lost driving home, and has to allow a couple of hours extra if she's driving somewhere strange. She has to take a day off to renew her car tax. She has enormous difficulty recognising verbal clues and body language and a meeting with the teacher at parents' evening is a nightmare. What to us are everyday irritations, to Penelope are major logistical mountains to be climbed.

She spent a day paying an outstanding parking ticket (plus late payment penalties) and got home exhausted. Her husband asked for a stamp. 'I'm cooking dinner, why does he need a stamp? Who writes letters except to Santa?' He told her he needed it to pay a parking fine he incurred a couple of days ago, 'before I forget'.

She turned off the stove, and walked over to give him a kiss. You see, she wrote, the important thing when you have Asberger's is not to be able to do stuff you can't do; it's to surround yourself with the people who can.

Now that's a lesson for all of us. As I've got older, I've learned to be comfortable with who I am, and stay close to people who are good at all the things I'm not good at. If I listed these dear and amazing people it would take all day, (but they know who they are)

If you want to be safe, build a team of people like you (I still carry the scars of being the odd one out in a team of clones). If you want to be successful, get people around you who aren't like you (apart of course from the passion for the task)

Thanks Penelope Trunk: your winsomeness, honesty and ability to laugh at yourself is always a great blessing. Sign up for her blog if you work with someone who has Asberger's and want to increase your understanding. Or if you just want something to make you smile.