Another favorite "Aspie" character

Back in the Paleozoic age there was a wonderful tv show called Star Trek. I'm talking the original Star Trek, with Captain Kirk and Mr. Spock and Scottie and the rest.

Mr. Spock was half Vulcan and half human and therein lay his struggles. Vulcans are completely logical, but Mr. Spock had the desire to be logical and yet human emotions that got in the way of logic. Emotions were difficult and painful for him to deal with.

I think he is a wonderful metaphor for those of us who feel comfortable dealing with ideas and intellect but who struggle to express emotions appropriately or even at all.

The mind is a comfortable place to be--things make sense. Things are basically predictable. But when you get into emotions, situations can become scary.

For a long time, the metaphor about emotions that made the most sense to me was the ocean. When I was a kid, I almost drowned in the ocean--I got caught in the break of some largish (to me--3-4 feet) waves and was knocked down several times. In between being knocked down, I struggled just to get my breath and it took several tumbles for me to get myself away from the break point, into shore. (I was not alone--other people were with me but didn't apparently notice...another long story).

So, emotions seemed to me to be like that--potentially life threatening.

Since then, I have gone through situations where I have had to deal with my emotions and in my late forties, I feel I have made progress. I no longer feel completely overwhelmed by my emotions or the emotions of other people.

But I understand and appreciate Mr. Spock's dilemma, nevertheless.