In praise of the genuine

Last night I went with my friend Becky (also mom to an Asperger's kid) to hear author Jesse Saperstein talk about his book "Atypical- Life with Asperger's in 20 1/3 Chapters". Both Becky and I had read the book within the last week and enjoyed it- in places it was hard to read, but other passages were laugh-out-loud funny. Jesse speaks much like he writes- with honesty and lots of humor. Besides the obvious inspirational quality hearing him talk about his life, failures and successes brought me, I was deeply impressed by his genuineness. After the talk, Becky and I stood in line to get our books signed, and it was a long wait. Jesse took the time to speak to each person, learn their name, and sign their book with a personalized message. If there's one thing that many of us in the ASD community like to do, it's commiserate and share our experiences with others who are in a similar situation. To be able to converse with someone who has lived 28 years with Asperger's in the neurotypical world (1/2 of that time undiagnosed), who has experienced both the best and worst that life so far has had to offer, and who appears to be on the road to a successful life is a rare opportunity. My impressions of Jesse were mainly that here was a real person, someone who tells it like it is, is often brutally honest, but with whom you would always know where you stood. I wonder when it occurs in a person's life that they have to be on guard for people not being real. I won't say I'm especially suspicious or even wary of people I meet, usually someone has to prove themselves unworthy for me to sense they are being fake, but my question is, why is this the way things are? Jesse mentions in the book that things would be so much easier if neurotypicals would just say what they mean instead of playing games like avoidance or ignoring.
I'm not exactly innocent of practicing what I preach, but I have to admit I find it refreshing to be around people whom others might find blunt, or even tactless. Jesse says he had to learn compromise to have a degree of success in the real world. If the art of compromise means game playing, the use of it is probably questionable. I'm all for sparing people's feelings, but how often have we all had thoughts of things we wish we could express, things that might even be viewed as constructive and useful critcism? If there was a way to meld the two concepts together- tact and honesty, probably most of the world's problems could be solved.
In the meantime, I'm glad the Jesses of the world exist. I hope I am working on guiding Sam down a path where he can be both genuine and successful. Some days are harder than others, and it seems like we'll never get there, but hearing stories like Jesse's give me hope that things can work out.