How to get people past the ugliness to give me a chance?

[ulrichburke]

I encounter quite a few injured turtles. I enjoy fixing them up. Last one was a Wood Turtle with the front quarter of its shell cracked. I clean the wound thoroughly to make sure there are no fly eggs then use epoxy and fiberglass. The West epoxy does not have UV protection so it all degrades in 6 months. Last year a naturalist found a turtle that I repaired. I feel good that we can care for living things, whether seagulls, dogs, turtles, or other people.

Dear Gerald.

Got a REALLY embarrassing-but-true story for you! I was in London a while ago - couple of years - and the part of London I was in had a high proportion of coloured people. A great delicacy to them is African land snails - I was passing a local shop - we call it a 'greengrocer' but as you're talking about turtles I'm guessing you're in America, am I right? A shop that specialises in selling fruit and vegetables, I don't know what those kind of stores are called there. Anyway. This one had a big box of African land snails - and they were all still moving! I suddenly had a thought of them being chucked into boiling water alive - and nope. Couldn't see it happening to them. So I bought the whole box and, somehow, with them in carrier bags, got them all back to Brighton where I live.

Brighton has a really big park, so I scattered them around it. In bushes, in shady areas, thinking I'd be giving them a couple more months of life. What I didn't know was African land snails do one thing REALLY fast - breed! They lay big clusters of eggs. And when the following summer came, everyone was talking about the huge snails filling not just that park but neighbouring parks too, and wondering where they came from and how come they were there....

They're STILL in Brighton parks in great quantities! And STILL nobody knows where they came from. Apart - er - from one person.....

I love watching them and, to be honest, I'm glad I saved their ancestors from being boiled alive!

Yours respectfully

Chris.

 

[VictorR]

I know you had good intent in saving those snails and that it's in the past, but I would kindly suggest next time that you keep in mind that introducing non-native species may harm the living things in an given ecosystem, especially in the absence of natural predators and where they may have an advantage over local wildlife for resources.

Many jurisdictions also have legislation and/or regulations which makes it an offense to introduce non-native species into the wild.

 

[Gerald Wilgus]

Dear Gerald.

Got a REALLY embarrassing-but-true story for you! I was in London a while ago - couple of years - and the part of London I was in had a high proportion of coloured people. A great delicacy to them is African land snails - I was passing a local shop - we call it a 'greengrocer' but as you're talking about turtles I'm guessing you're in America, am I right? A shop that specialises in selling fruit and vegetables, I don't know what those kind of stores are called there. Anyway. This one had a big box of African land snails - and they were all still moving! I suddenly had a thought of them being chucked into boiling water alive - and nope. Couldn't see it happening to them. So I bought the whole box and, somehow, with them in carrier bags, got them all back to Brighton where I live.

Brighton has a really big park, so I scattered them around it. In bushes, in shady areas, thinking I'd be giving them a couple more months of life. What I didn't know was African land snails do one thing REALLY fast - breed! They lay big clusters of eggs. And when the following summer came, everyone was talking about the huge snails filling not just that park but neighbouring parks too, and wondering where they came from and how come they were there....

They're STILL in Brighton parks in great quantities! And STILL nobody knows where they came from. Apart - er - from one person.....

I love watching them and, to be honest, I'm glad I saved their ancestors from being boiled alive!

Yours respectfully

Chris.

Hi Chris. Yes, I am in America in Northern Michigan near the Eastern shore of Lake Michigan and near the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore. A warning, I do hunt, but give thanks to the animals who's life I have taken for my nourishment. Here in America deer, without natural predators, do cause massive damage. Yet even with hunting, herd mortality during winter, their starving time of year, is high. I do not kill animals without using them, unlike trophy hunters. We do have mountain lions and coyotes in the area and I have seen signs of bobcat on my property. I live and let live. America has two big invasive animal problems. People let Boa Constrictors loose in the Florida Everglades. They are eating a lot of native animals and are destroying that unique area. An aggressive eradication effort is underway. Then somebody let Lionfish loose in the Caribbean. They are destroying coral reefs. The solution has been to hunt them for food. They have become popular and are very tasty. Please be careful about releasing non-native species.

Have you ever heard of Temple Grandin? She is an autistic woman who works with livestock and designs handling systems so as to not treat them cruelly.

 

[ulrichburke]

Hi Chris. Yes, I am in America in Northern Michigan near the Eastern shore of Lake Michigan and near the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore. A warning, I do hunt, but give thanks to the animals who's life I have taken for my nourishment. Here in America deer, without natural predators, do cause massive damage. Yet even with hunting, herd mortality during winter, their starving time of year, is high. I do not kill animals without using them, unlike trophy hunters. We do have mountain lions and coyotes in the area and I have seen signs of bobcat on my property. I live and let live. America has two big invasive animal problems. People let Boa Constrictors loose in the Florida Everglades. They are eating a lot of native animals and are destroying that unique area. An aggressive eradication effort is underway. Then somebody let Lionfish loose in the Caribbean. They are destroying coral reefs. The solution has been to hunt them for food. They have become popular and are very tasty. Please be careful about releasing non-native species.

Have you ever heard of Temple Grandin? She is an autistic woman who works with livestock and designs handling systems so as to not treat them cruelly.

Dear Gerald.

I really didn't expect those things to last and, when they did, I didn't know what to do about it! They don't seem to be doing any harm much, not even sure what they're living on. There still seems to be loads of ordinary snails around and sometimes you come across a pile of large empty shells where a bird - not sure if it's a seagull or which kind of bird, Brighton's on the coast so of course there's loads of seagulls, has had a feast. So I wouldn't say they're munching on other local wildlife or on the food other snails can't do without

As far as killing things goes, I do agree that boa constrictors shouldn't be let loose because they're totally wrong for the area and will eat local creatures, not just leaves. But why kill them, why not just take them back to their own environment? Same with the lionfish. Hastings, where I used to live, is a fishing town and I've never liked fishing because it's the only creature we torture to death. Farm animals are killed pretty quickly. Fish are dumped in piles on a boat where they slowly suffocate in an atmosphere they cannot breathe. I've seen them on the beach with their gills still trembling and bought those ones and put them back in the sea. Lots of the time they suddenly start flapping and breathing again, and I feel good when they swim back out where they belong. There used to be - briefly, it was overpriced for the area - a marine food restaurant with 'Local Delicacy Crabs' in an aquarium, you chose the one you wanted, they took it and cooked it for you. When I had money, I'd buy the lot and just put them back on the soft sand by the water's edge if the tide was in, or in rockpools if the tide was out. I've done the same with live mussels - I've gone past restaurant kitchens and heard them scream as they're dropped in pans of boiling water. I mean, wouldn't you? I know what that feels like cos of my legs. So I've bought bags of those and put them back in the ocean, too. They're all gathered from around Hastings anyway.

Most carnivores kill things quickly. There's a few exceptions to that I know of - cats play with mice because they don't need them for food as humans feed them, so that brings out inherent sadism I suppose. And I THINK it's beaver but I'm probably wrong, you'd know which creature, there's one who kills fish to show off to its mates and just leaves the fish on the shore with single bites taken out of them. Might be otter. But hunting for food's fine. It's torturing stuff to death just to eat it I don't like. (Snails are removed from their shells to be cleaned before cooking, but remain alive during the entire process. Then they're boiled to death.)

I really didn't expect those things to manage to survive, though. Got another me-and-animals story you can yell at me about! When I lived in Hastings - and I've zero idea where these things came from in the first place, but they were British and local - I was walking home one night when I saw something jumping in the gutter (between the edge of the sidewalk and the street where the cars are, where the drains for rainwater are, dunno what you call it over there.) So I went and looked and it was a frog! Now there wasn't a park THAT close to where I was living then, so I caught it and thought 'I'll put it back in the nearest park in the morning.' Carried on up the road - and kept seeing jumping shadows! Got home with a carrier bag full of frogs, of all different sizes! No idea where any of them came from unless their spawn had been sucked into the drain system somehow and they'd come up through the slits. Anyway I made little islands out of towels for them, in a bath with a bit of cold water for them to swim in and, the next day, took them down to Alexandra Park, which is a BIG park running all the way up the middle of Hastings, and let them go there.

Now you can say, and I'd agree, they hadn't necessarily come FROM Alexandra Park so, despite them being British frogs, I'd released them in a foreign microsystem. But what would you have done with them? All frogs do is sit on pads and eat flies! Would you have just killed them all because you didn't know which park they'd come from?

As far as deer causing damage goes, sure they do - because we've encroached on their territory. We're the lionfish. We're the boa constrictors. Difference IS - the lionfish and boa constrictors aren't there of their own choice, they're there because humans have put them there so killing them's a bit unfair. All they're doing is trying to survive the only way they know how in areas where they've been placed through no choice of their own. We CHOOSE to go to areas and kill local creatures cos they're 'in our way'. We go to land not our own and complain because the rightful inhabitants are damaging that which doesn't belong there - our stuff. We do this a LOT. Think of poor mice. They've lived in areas for millennia, we come along and build houses on their land and complain because the original inhabitants still want to live there. I love my squeakies - I live in a top floor apartment and put down little plates of cheese for them. There's not so many at the moment because of traps put down in other places but you've gotta admit we've done the lionfish/boa thing you're complaining about - gone into an area not our own and killed off the local fauna who belong there by right. Difference IS - we had the choice of whether or not to go to that area. The lionfish and boas didn't. So in their cases, we're killing creatures who are only trying to survive in lands they didn't choose to be in - we made that choice for them.

I also lived near a fruit warehouse and was forever rescuing wonderful, huge, colourful fruit spiders that crossed the ocean in crates and taking them up the local animal sanctuary - I even bought vivariums for them to live in there. I got free entry to help look after them - can hear little squeakies in the background eating breakfast! They're part of our ecosystem, they belong here, yet we put down traps to kill them. If I see any traps in the building I check 'em and chuck 'em.

Anyway, feel free to howl back!

Yours respectfully

Chris.

 

[Gerald Wilgus]

Chris, I like your ethics. I scuba dive and love to see all the life on the reef. After encountering some intelligent cephalopods like the Octopus, I could not eat one. I do not eat Calamari because I have had squid come up and stare into my facemask. Simpler mollosks, like clams, are stimulus-response machines and I have few difficulties eating them as long as we harvest them responsibly. Lionfish, BTW are usually speared because of their toxic fin rays, and it appears that the shock of that assault shuts down their nervous system unlike other fish I've seen which struggle. I have fished for halibut in Alaska and they must be dispatched quickly as their fins are razor sharp and one does not want one struggling in the boat with you.I draw the line at catch and release which I consider fish torture. I try to live in recognition of what I am eating and do not think that meat is something that magically appears in plastic wrap at the grocery store.

All the best to you.

 

[ulrichburke]

Dear Gerald.

Really thought I was gonna get howled at there! I've never been full-on scuba diving - slight dearth of coral reefs in the British coastline! - but I've been snorkelling and got a couple of silly tales. You might be able to help with the second one.

First one - I was happily snorkelling off the Hastings coast - facemask'n'breathing tube - and this hewge starfish decided to come say howdy - by slapping itself on the front of the facemask! All I could see was pulsing suckers. Came back up and spent AGES carefully prising it free so I didn't damage it - that thing was SUPERGLUED! - and putting it back in the water. Went back down, saw a familiar shape cartwheeling towards me and discovered a sudden appointment in a different area of the coastline!

This one's - odd. You might know what it is. As you've prob. seen on a map, England comes to a point at the bottom. That's called Land's End and the beaches there are odd - they're not ground up stones, they're ground up shells and you have to wear sandals/flip-flops (sandals are better) so you don't cut your feet on the points.

I've snorkelled off Lands End beaches a few times and twice I've seen this thing. It's a great sheet of translucent jelly, about half an inch or so thick, with rows of pulsing blue nuclei on it. Maybe because I don't know how to Google it I've never found a picture of it in Google, but you can't call it a jellyfish because there's no tentacles or anything, it's just a floating sheet of jelly with rows of pulsing blue blobs on it. The rows are pretty neatly arranged, if you imagine a translucent chocolate bar and every square of chocolate was a nucleus, that's sorta it. Only ever seen that thing off the Cornish coast twice. But it's stuck with me because I've never been able to find out what it was.

Have you ever seen anything like that, or heard of it?

Yours respectfully

Chris.

 

[ulrichburke]

I am SOO glad you have taken the courage to join us here and SOOO PROUD OF YOU FOR BEING ALIVE!

I can be quite analytical when reading life stories, but occasionally, another side of me pops out and it has with you. I could barely read due to wanting to hurt those who have tortured you!

People are so cruel and why I suffer social anxiety.

There is this unique couple who do short videos on their lives. They are called: Squiggle and Scrubs. He is deformed. I cannot remember the name of the condition he has, but he has been interviewed by a couple who go around talking to all kinds of people with disabilities. Special people, by special books. There are countless interviews all around the world, with people who have extreme disabilites. You might want to check that out?

My faith helps me to keep sane. We have many life experiences of those who struggle with disabilities but have a hope which keeps them going. One which comes to mind is a sister who does not have any arms or legs. She uses her tongue to turn pages of the bible and she talks to people about the amazing hope, opened to all mankind.

Ignorance plays a huge part in stupid and cruel comments. I also believe that in India, it is common practise to think that someone with an extreme disability is from the devil, sadly. And why, they believe they are doing the right thing.

Again, so relieved you have joined us, because you will not feel alone now.

You are a human being, who deserves love and respect!

Dear Suzanne.

Thankyou for your lovely letter. I've not heard of Squiggle and Scrubs, will check them out. Ummm.....

I can re-put all I put in a post to someone else who told me to have Faith in Jesus - but God doesn't actually want disabled people anywhere near him. It says so in the Bible, in Leviticus...

Leviticus 21:16–23​

And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ‘Speak to Aaron, saying, None of your offspring throughout their generations who has a blemish may approach to offer the bread of his God. For no one who has a blemish shall draw near, a man blind or lame, or one who has a mutilated face or a limb too long, or a man who has an injured foot or an injured hand, or a hunchback or a dwarf or a man with a defect in his sight or an itching disease or scabs or crushed testicles. No man of the offspring of Aaron the priest who has a blemish shall come near to offer the Lord’s food offerings; since he has a blemish, he shall not come near to offer the bread of his God. He … shall not go through the veil or approach the altar, because he has a blemish, that he may not profane my sanctuaries, for I am the Lord who sanctifies them.’

I know He doesn't specify Asperger's, but you sure get His point! You gotta blemish, you're outta there. I believe in doing the Lord's word, so I've hardly ever been to church because I read that bit. Another bit is....

One Who Disobeys the Commands of Lord are Punished with Disability (Deuteronomy 28:28-29)

The Lord will strike you with madness and blindness and confusion of mind, and you shall grope at noonday, as the blind grope in darkness, and you shall not prosper in your ways. And you shall be only oppressed and robbed continually, and there shall be no one to help you.

Disability is among the many curses of disobedience listed. This indirectly indicates that the disabled are those who do not follow the right path of the Lord. I can certainly testify to the end of that bit - I have definitely been oppressed and robbed continually and there was never anyone to help me! Even ended up in a mental institution at one point because I left a flat with nice stuff in it one morning, did volunteering all day and came back to a flat that had been robbed totally empty. Nothing left but a stove and a chair. They found me desperately making holes in the walls to see if somehow things had gotten through the walls - my mind just went. It was about the 8th flat they'd given me and all the other ones had been robbed empty, but this one was on the 2nd floor so I didn't think it could happen there. So yup - that quotation sure works for me! Last quote - but there are many others -

This one's more subtle. God's view on disability doesn't CHANGE throughout the Bible, it just gets schneakier.

Disability is Virtuous Suffering and should be accepted as God’s Blessings (2 Corinthians 12:9)​

But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me.


On the surface verses like this seem to be in good taste and might also help a person in accepting their condition. But, according to social thinkers like Eisland glorifying disability in this manner encourages passive acceptance for social barriers and this certainly is not practically helpful for persons with disabilities! It's saying 'I've made you as you are, you can't do anything about it so you might as well thank me for it!' And if you're disabled from birth, it's the 'sins of the father visiting themselves upon the sons' so you can't win there either.

So disability and Church all depends on how much you're going by the Preachers, who have this 'All are welcome in God's Sight' spiel and happily beckon anybody in, and how much you're going by what the Bible ACTUALLY says. Which just like the books of most religions, are two very different things. Would you believe the Koran states that men and women are born equal and remain equal in their god's sight? Not if you listen to the Imam or see the poor ladies toddling along behind their husbands you wouldn't - but it does!

Me - and this is just personal preference, I am NOT IN ANY WAY saying you should do the same - I prefer to go by what the Bible ACTUALLY says. Which, as I've shown above, is that God doesn't want people with disabilities anywhere near him and uses disability as a form of punishment, either for something the person's done or, more usually, for something his parents have done (Sins of the father visited upon....)

There's loads of other places in the Bible which show God's thoughts on disability, all prettymuch as outlined above. In places, God says He created disabled people which is true. He did. To punish their parents, according to the Book.

Yours respectfully

Chris.

 

[Slime_Punk]

Dear Suzanne.

Thankyou for your lovely letter. I've not heard of Squiggle and Scrubs, will check them out. Ummm.....

I can re-put all I put in a post to someone else who told me to have Faith in Jesus - but God doesn't actually want disabled people anywhere near him. It says so in the Bible, in Leviticus...

Leviticus 21:16–23​

And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ‘Speak to Aaron, saying, None of your offspring throughout their generations who has a blemish may approach to offer the bread of his God. For no one who has a blemish shall draw near, a man blind or lame, or one who has a mutilated face or a limb too long, or a man who has an injured foot or an injured hand, or a hunchback or a dwarf or a man with a defect in his sight or an itching disease or scabs or crushed testicles. No man of the offspring of Aaron the priest who has a blemish shall come near to offer the Lord’s food offerings; since he has a blemish, he shall not come near to offer the bread of his God. He … shall not go through the veil or approach the altar, because he has a blemish, that he may not profane my sanctuaries, for I am the Lord who sanctifies them.’

I know He doesn't specify Asperger's, but you sure get His point! You gotta blemish, you're outta there. I believe in doing the Lord's word, so I've hardly ever been to church because I read that bit. Another bit is....

One Who Disobeys the Commands of Lord are Punished with Disability (Deuteronomy 28:28-29)

The Lord will strike you with madness and blindness and confusion of mind, and you shall grope at noonday, as the blind grope in darkness, and you shall not prosper in your ways. And you shall be only oppressed and robbed continually, and there shall be no one to help you.

Disability is among the many curses of disobedience listed. This indirectly indicates that the disabled are those who do not follow the right path of the Lord. I can certainly testify to the end of that bit - I have definitely been oppressed and robbed continually and there was never anyone to help me! Even ended up in a mental institution at one point because I left a flat with nice stuff in it one morning, did volunteering all day and came back to a flat that had been robbed totally empty. Nothing left but a stove and a chair. They found me desperately making holes in the walls to see if somehow things had gotten through the walls - my mind just went. It was about the 8th flat they'd given me and all the other ones had been robbed empty, but this one was on the 2nd floor so I didn't think it could happen there. So yup - that quotation sure works for me! Last quote - but there are many others -

This one's more subtle. God's view on disability doesn't CHANGE throughout the Bible, it just gets schneakier.

Disability is Virtuous Suffering and should be accepted as God’s Blessings (2 Corinthians 12:9)​

But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me.


On the surface verses like this seem to be in good taste and might also help a person in accepting their condition. But, according to social thinkers like Eisland glorifying disability in this manner encourages passive acceptance for social barriers and this certainly is not practically helpful for persons with disabilities! It's saying 'I've made you as you are, you can't do anything about it so you might as well thank me for it!' And if you're disabled from birth, it's the 'sins of the father visiting themselves upon the sons' so you can't win there either.

So disability and Church all depends on how much you're going by the Preachers, who have this 'All are welcome in God's Sight' spiel and happily beckon anybody in, and how much you're going by what the Bible ACTUALLY says. Which just like the books of most religions, are two very different things. Would you believe the Koran states that men and women are born equal and remain equal in their god's sight? Not if you listen to the Imam or see the poor ladies toddling along behind their husbands you wouldn't - but it does!

Me - and this is just personal preference, I am NOT IN ANY WAY saying you should do the same - I prefer to go by what the Bible ACTUALLY says. Which, as I've shown above, is that God doesn't want people with disabilities anywhere near him and uses disability as a form of punishment, either for something the person's done or, more usually, for something his parents have done (Sins of the father visited upon....)

There's loads of other places in the Bible which show God's thoughts on disability, all prettymuch as outlined above. In places, God says He created disabled people which is true. He did. To punish their parents, according to the Book.

Yours respectfully

Chris.

This was so well-written. Those are the kind of problems I personally have with religion (although I respect everyone's beliefs, of course), because I really don't know how a God could punish anybody like that, or how other humans could stand by and reject another human simply for existing, who hasn't done anything to deserve it.

 

[Suzanne]

Dear Suzanne.

Thankyou for your lovely letter. I've not heard of Squiggle and Scrubs, will check them out. Ummm.....

I can re-put all I put in a post to someone else who told me to have Faith in Jesus - but God doesn't actually want disabled people anywhere near him. It says so in the Bible, in Leviticus...

Leviticus 21:16–23​

And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ‘Speak to Aaron, saying, None of your offspring throughout their generations who has a blemish may approach to offer the bread of his God. For no one who has a blemish shall draw near, a man blind or lame, or one who has a mutilated face or a limb too long, or a man who has an injured foot or an injured hand, or a hunchback or a dwarf or a man with a defect in his sight or an itching disease or scabs or crushed testicles. No man of the offspring of Aaron the priest who has a blemish shall come near to offer the Lord’s food offerings; since he has a blemish, he shall not come near to offer the bread of his God. He … shall not go through the veil or approach the altar, because he has a blemish, that he may not profane my sanctuaries, for I am the Lord who sanctifies them.’

I know He doesn't specify Asperger's, but you sure get His point! You gotta blemish, you're outta there. I believe in doing the Lord's word, so I've hardly ever been to church because I read that bit. Another bit is....

One Who Disobeys the Commands of Lord are Punished with Disability (Deuteronomy 28:28-29)

The Lord will strike you with madness and blindness and confusion of mind, and you shall grope at noonday, as the blind grope in darkness, and you shall not prosper in your ways. And you shall be only oppressed and robbed continually, and there shall be no one to help you.

Disability is among the many curses of disobedience listed. This indirectly indicates that the disabled are those who do not follow the right path of the Lord. I can certainly testify to the end of that bit - I have definitely been oppressed and robbed continually and there was never anyone to help me! Even ended up in a mental institution at one point because I left a flat with nice stuff in it one morning, did volunteering all day and came back to a flat that had been robbed totally empty. Nothing left but a stove and a chair. They found me desperately making holes in the walls to see if somehow things had gotten through the walls - my mind just went. It was about the 8th flat they'd given me and all the other ones had been robbed empty, but this one was on the 2nd floor so I didn't think it could happen there. So yup - that quotation sure works for me! Last quote - but there are many others -

This one's more subtle. God's view on disability doesn't CHANGE throughout the Bible, it just gets schneakier.

Disability is Virtuous Suffering and should be accepted as God’s Blessings (2 Corinthians 12:9)​

But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me.


On the surface verses like this seem to be in good taste and might also help a person in accepting their condition. But, according to social thinkers like Eisland glorifying disability in this manner encourages passive acceptance for social barriers and this certainly is not practically helpful for persons with disabilities! It's saying 'I've made you as you are, you can't do anything about it so you might as well thank me for it!' And if you're disabled from birth, it's the 'sins of the father visiting themselves upon the sons' so you can't win there either.

So disability and Church all depends on how much you're going by the Preachers, who have this 'All are welcome in God's Sight' spiel and happily beckon anybody in, and how much you're going by what the Bible ACTUALLY says. Which just like the books of most religions, are two very different things. Would you believe the Koran states that men and women are born equal and remain equal in their god's sight? Not if you listen to the Imam or see the poor ladies toddling along behind their husbands you wouldn't - but it does!

Me - and this is just personal preference, I am NOT IN ANY WAY saying you should do the same - I prefer to go by what the Bible ACTUALLY says. Which, as I've shown above, is that God doesn't want people with disabilities anywhere near him and uses disability as a form of punishment, either for something the person's done or, more usually, for something his parents have done (Sins of the father visited upon....)

There's loads of other places in the Bible which show God's thoughts on disability, all prettymuch as outlined above. In places, God says He created disabled people which is true. He did. To punish their parents, according to the Book.

Yours respectfully

Chris.

Hi Chris.

Please inbox me and I will be glad to explain a few things regarding the scripture you posted.

 

[Stuttermabolur]

I've snorkelled off Lands End beaches a few times and twice I've seen this thing. It's a great sheet of translucent jelly, about half an inch or so thick, with rows of pulsing blue nuclei on it. Maybe because I don't know how to Google it I've never found a picture of it in Google, but you can't call it a jellyfish because there's no tentacles or anything, it's just a floating sheet of jelly with rows of pulsing blue blobs on it. The rows are pretty neatly arranged, if you imagine a translucent chocolate bar and every square of chocolate was a nucleus, that's sorta it. Only ever seen that thing off the Cornish coast twice. But it's stuck with me because I've never been able to find out what it was.

Have you ever seen anything like that, or heard of it?

I haven't ever seen it myself, but from how you describe it, I think you might have seen a Man'O War. It's a colony of many different organisms (including jellyfish) living together in a sort of floating island. You can look it up and see whether it corresponds to what you saw.