Dragon's wings - by David Seagrave

GROW YOUR DRAGON S WINGS !

I weite this to explain what we do and how I can help adults with high functioning autism .I was diagnosed with Aspergers Syndrome in 2004, 50 years too late to avoid a blighted life when my troubles began in 1952 and it is a long and harrowing story .

I attended Red Hill Remedial School in Kent which so decisively moulded my character that my most important achievement in life is my burgeoning literary collection called The Socrates Of Charford It is about a fictional Welsh classmate Alan Wright from Charford in Avalonshire a fictional county between Glos and Gwent.Alan acquires that soubriquet because he invents a life affirming Standard to Live By called Contributionism and lives according to its teachings to become the headmaster of a similar school in my storyline.

Aristotle declared “An exemplary life is the ultimate beauty “.I struggle to emulate Alan but I am thwarted at every turn.I have offered a portfolio of edifying pursuits which I have practiced since my schooldays but I am in severe difficulties.I am bound to declare that I am simply appalled by attitudes in Scottish society that were absent in my days at Glasgow University in the late sixties.Leading contributors to the Scotsman and Herald all concur about the social evils that have grown in recent years .I am not I trust being a SNOB when I put across Alan Wright s Contributionism as a way forwards and quote a couplet “Moelwyn-Wright,our Leader –Guide/His Code of Conduct doth provide/A path to grace up mountains steep/Our way of life I vow to keep” allegorising Alan s middle name MOELWYN a 720m high mountain near Portmadoc his birthplace borne as his long deceased uncle s forename .MOELWYNHOOD is the state of maturity which all adults should grow into- as Socrates and Plato explained – the development of all the virtues – diligence, honesty,patience,imagination,.tolerance, good humour, single mindedness, ignoring adversity,thrift, foresightedness,lateral thinking, loyal service freely given,and steadfast adherence to Higher Principles in the face of evil

I have coined the expression “Growing Dragon s Wings” to denote a frame of mind where someone has reached such a mastery of worthwhile pursuits that distressing peculiarities shrink to insignificance and figuratively aloft on those dragon s wings he is beyond the reach of scorn.When I climbed Cader Idris 6 months after being maimed I had in spirit soared a thousand metres above the mindless common herd and small-minded .people like my late and devoutly Christian father.He practiced “Thomas-the –Tank-Engine-Christianity “ –that is Christian dogma at the reading age of 7 –and so did my mother whose intellectual level was that of tiddley-winks .She could not understand the everyday English of London quality papers let alone the contents of my university essays !

The shy sensitive ASD young adult needs what I call Moral Armament to cope with the evil people he must collide with on leaving school.My mentors at Red Hill School taught me about charlatans and crooks and the many deceptions practiced even in the 1950s .Today every high street is full of premises who se real purpose is to extract MONEY from gullible people such as gambling-machine arcades I was taught the mathematical proof how gamblers always lose their money and took it to heart along with much else I had assimilated at that school.During civil disturbances in 1981 when I was maimed I wrote playlets about a young man who got into trouble and the Court sent him to Alan Wright for treatment They illustrated the predicament facing young men today ,then too ASD adults are picked upon at work and by relatives so they end up isolated and embittered

I am simply appalled by the attitudes of some people in the corridors of power.Without naming them influential religious factions hold that involuntary peculiarities and mental illness is a sign of SIN in the individual and thus justifies unspeakable cruelty.The victims spiral into severe mental illness and alcoholism and crime and come before the courts as people so severely damaged that even my fictional Welshman might fail to heal the scars in their minds.Funding for mental health services is being cut and with that comes closure of facilities for ASD people.

I have been IN TROUBLE for disclosing my hurtful past in autobiographies which I will gladly share AND for explaining the principles behind Alan Wright s Contributionism which clash with religious authoritarianisms- who would all execrate me for being a threat to their moth-eaten dogmas that have no relevance at all in 21st Century society I am saying this in the expectation that I will again be in trouble even for presenting you with inspiring stories about ASD people like “Red Haired Roderick “ Now look out of the windows dear citizens and identify the bumps on the northern skyline Within an hour s hike along the Devon Valley Way you reach such places as Mill Glen Tillicoultry where I would like to take you to discover dare I say the God Within You And All About as you reach the Rough Confluence and sit high above it to listen to the tumbling waters and the wind s melody and behold the cloud-armadas floating high overhead, enjoy the moor-birds and the wild grandeur .Then I can show you how to make marvellous model buildings from timber found fly –tipped and on me I have a pair of Gripperbreeks that holds my false leg on -made from cloth dumped in a skip –and if permission is granted behold my photographs exposed chiefly in reloaded throwaway cameras – see views of Scotland and overseas – that illustrate what I do.

So give me half a chance and I will teach you my brethren how to rise beyond the reach of scorn as with unremitting effort as you master demanding pursuits you grow your Dragon s Wings

David Seagrave