Muxworthy's Musings

For me this is where it starts getting difficult to write without sounding like a big-head as I deal with the next subject, which is ‘Insight’ I worked with a man called Haydn Dennis from Swansea who was not only responsible for training me in the field of architecture but more importantly he led me to Christ. One day we had a window cleaner come into the office bringing with him the triangular ladder he used and Haydn asked him why this tool of the trade was shaped in such a way? The answer was that it allowed him to rest the ladder firmly on the mullion of the window in order to clean it. After this conversation Haydn passed on the following nugget of wisdom to me ‘Treat everything as if it is the first time you have seen it.’ This simple principle has helped me in so many ways, both in my day to day work but more importantly when reading scripture. Of course this is totally dependent on me actually not being in too much of a rush to remember it in the first place. That I beli...

In the first part of this series I listed what are for me the positives of Asperger’s Syndrome. I am all too aware of how the negatives affect me (and others). Each day I have to make the conscious decision to live out the positives, sometimes I am successful, sometimes I am not. However, writing all this has given me the opportunity to revisit again and again the following verse and make sure I apply it to my day to day living: Philippians 4v8: Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy— think about such things. I’d be the first to admit that my brain is wired in such a way as I can recall all sorts of things, which is something that has left more than one person (usually my wife) gaping in amazement, even stuff I have no interest whatsoever in, for instance football. Although it is not so much Sherlock’s Mind Palace but Jason’s Brain Shed...

With hindsight and all the advances in neuroscience you might have already asked the question why wasn’t this picked up when I was younger? Well, it was and it wasn’t, in old fashioned parlance I could have been described as a ‘problem child’ and back then tragically the panacea for such ills was a jolly good hiding. Thank God we have moved on since then! I realised very early on (around the age of five) that even though we are all different I certainly was more different than most and I certainly couldn’t understand why everyone else didn’t see the world like I did. I was well used to being described as odd, weird, peculiar etc. and there was one incident in my teenage years summed this up. We were in a physics lesson (with thankfully a great teacher) and he was explaining the meaning of the word ‘anomaly’ and it went something like this: Teacher: An anomaly is something that is in a group but not part of it because it is different. Let me explain: Take Muxworthy here (pointing a...

First of all I would like to thank Lady Gaga for the title of this blog.  As a result you may be reading this with a deal of trepidation as to what might be coming next.  Some of you might already know what I am about to reveal about myself, either because I told you or you have worked it out.  Also for those of you who have read my previous blogs any preconceived idea of me might be about to be turned on its head.  I’m Autistic – there it is, out in the open.   To be precise I have what is more commonly known as Asperger’s Syndrome, sometimes referred to as being an ‘Aspie’.   So first let me start with some personal myth busting:  ·        I am not like Rainman – He was an Autistic Savant. ·        I did not ‘catch’ Autism, it is something you are born with. ·        I am not mentally defective or intellectually sub-normal – far from it! ·   ...

Introduction. Have you ever experienced a moment when you caught a glimpse of the price tag for some of the privileges we enjoy today? Some years ago, I went out to France to visit the Somme battlefield. Most of us are aware of the terrible loss of life in that battle which took place between July and November 1916. As you would expect there are numerous cemeteries and memorials in that area but one above all dominates all of them. It is the Thiepval memorial to the missing. It stands a total of 160ft high inscribed with the 72,246 names of all those who were killed on this battlefield between 1915 and 1918 and have no known grave – and that is just the British side. To put that into some context the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff holds 74,500. One of the thoughts that hit me was each one of those names were all some mother’s son, they all ate, slept, laughed, and cried just like the rest of us. I am not ashamed to say that the enormity of this sight moved me to tears and from t...