I haven’t watched ‘Rain Man’ yet, though I know it’s a classic film for understanding the nature of autism. Knowing the synopsis roughly, it stuck me that we are all, so long as not fully enlightened, defective in various ways. Tom Cruise plays the ‘normal’ guy, yet he is defective in terms of being impatient and such, while Dustin Hoffman plays his autistic brother, who is seen by him as ‘abnormal’ at first, yet he is in ways more normal than Cruise in being simple and less scheming. (Reminds me a little of Forrest Gump, though he is not autistic.)
While their togetherness meant friction at first, it also Cruise also learns from Hoffman and transforms, as they become each other’s keeper. Yes indeed, there is something to learn from everyone… as long as we are not yet fully learned, enlightened.