My Rain Man

Kim Peek, the soul who inspired Rain Man.

I saw Kim Peek reading phonebooks in the county library. Most patrons passed without noticing, but I knew Kim from his visits to the emergency department. He later inspired Dustin Hoffman’s character, Raymond Babbitt, in the film Rain Man.

Unlike Raymond Babbitt, Kim was affable and quick to interact with people. When ER staff shared their birthdates, he’d immediately tell them what day of the week they were born and offer some historical tidbit about the date. I liked him. He was fun to be around. And his father, who accompanied him, was equally kind.

Kim so impressed Barry Morrow in 1984 that Morrow later wrote the Oscar-winning Rain Man screenplay. Then he loaned his Oscar to Kim to take to speaking engagements. I saw the small statue Kim had hauled around the country and shown to thousands. It was beat-up. Morrow said it was his “most loved Oscar Statue.”

Kim has passed now. I wish I could sit and visit with him again. Notwithstanding his difficulties with social interactions, he was a wonderful man with marvelous gifts.

Too often, our society marginalizes those who are differently gifted? We don’t all see the same, hear the same, think or speak the same.

Slow down. Engage. Accept.

(Photo and Morrow quote from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kim_Peek.)