Gift from Those With Lucifer Zen Zen Zo Physical Theatre (c) Morgan Roberts 2008

Dear Reader

I do this because some of the ways I hear music and perceive music are different to most of you. There are ways that I go about making music that are different.

I do this because there are ways that I seek to know you that are different, and there are ways that I understand myself that are different too.

I do this because before now I did not know that this was the case.

I do this so I can give something to you through understanding my own situation. Asperger's is a recognised disability in Australia, a defect of the brain but I do not see myself as disabled or defective. In a very real sense I am differently abled.

I do this because I am an Other, and it is important to me that other "Others" can read my story and get something out of it.

I do this because I have students who are autistic to some degree - Asperger's or High Functioning Autism, or undiagnosed or sub-clinical. I see them struggling socially, but engaged musically, willing to move forward on one level, unable to on another. They are people for whom their defect threatens to adversely affect their life, whose social difficulties could even overwhelm their music. They are also people, like me who could use their music to build their lives, and use their own unique ways of seeing and hearing the world to build their music.

I do this for me and

I do this for you.

Related Posts

1. Aspies Everywhere: Asperger's seems to be "flavour of the month" in the popular media at the moment.
2. Speaking in Pictures: Story telling with text sometimes requires the services of actors of different kinds.
3. You don't know what you don't know ...: Giving a label of "different" to an experience that is "normal for me" results in a re-evaluatuion of a whole life.
4. Researchers: Describe your own world because, especially if Theory of Mind is an issue, your subjects may not know just how different they are.
5. Knowledge is Power: It is possible for someone with alexithymic traits and difficulties with empathy to learn the skills, especially with music as a catalyst.
6. Reading, Reading, Remembering: I've always loved books, especially books about THINGS.
7. What will I want to know next?: This document will live on. What are my own hopes for learning from it?