i was born with very poor eyesight. learning is 83% vision!
Are you sure that what you read was not 33, 35, 53, 55, 63, or 65?
Sorry brother - I thought you would find that to be funny. That is all I was after.
NO, NOT FUNNY AT ALL!!! poor vision is the worst to deal with. i used to want to kill people who made fun of my thick glasses & poor vision & i knew the right people to do it & they never would have been caught either. the mockery was extremely devastating & that's on top of being beaten tremendously when we were kids by our parents. heck, i'll bet nobody on CC had a worse childhood than my brothers & !!! that was all before i became a born again Christian in 1993. truthfully, i was very surprised that the 1st issue Jesus spoke to me about was forgiveness. in about May or June of 93', i became a Christian. a picture of forgiveness entered my mind & a miracle took place: it was done, all over with!!!. i never even had to try to forgive people, it just happened, certainly a miracle from God!!!!!!
Part of the reasoning behind making that post is that I have astigmatism - which, at a certain distance, can cause the number 83 to look like any of the numbers in that list I put in the post. It was a play on the number 83 through an astigmatic lens - strictly for humor in a 'funny' thread. It was not intended to insult you in any way.
You seem to me to be a nice fellow. I thought that I knew you well enough to say that without making offense. Apparently, I was wrong. For someone who laughs heartily at quite-the-variety of other people's jokes - I truly thought you would find it to be funny. I did not know about or realize the nature or depth of the personal history tied to it.
My sincere apologies.
I will do my best to make sure it never happens again...
I would not even begin to try to compare my childhood with anyone else on here - while I can certainly say that I have been "punished" below-the-waist with a hand, a belt, a "switch" (small rough-textured but flexible 'limb' from a bush or tree stripped of its leaves, etc.), and a few other things at times (e.g. ping pong paddle) - I do not remember ever being 'beaten' by my parents - never struck with a fist, baseball bat, etc.; albeit, they were very strict - and, it kept me on the straight-and-narrow.
The worst "scars" of my childhood were emotional and not physical - not being accepted, not being liked well-enough by others for them to want to befriend me. In fact, in my entire lifetime, the number of people (outside of family) that I might consider to have ever truly been a 'close' friend are very precious few - maybe just one or two. I do not know what it is like to have a bunch of friends - people who actually like me, want to be around me, want to spend time with me, want to get to know me, want to be my friend - or, even one really. I have spent my entire life "pretty-much" alone. Oh sure - I have been around people I work with, church folks I have spent time around, etc. - but never actually achieving true friendship with any of them in the way I described earlier in this paragraph.
I have never truly experienced the love of a woman. (The romantic kind.) I have never seen it in her eyes. I have never felt it with her arms wrapped around me holding me close to her. I have never known it because she wanted to be with me. Yet, it is the only thing I have ever really asked God for - a
good woman to share life with. I don't have to be rich, famous, or any of a number of other things that people spend their life trying to obtain. I have always felt like I had a great deal of love and affection to offer the right kind of woman and only wanted to be able to do that - to love her, to encourage her, to share life with her - to "be one" with her... (in the biblical sense)
God must simply not want me to have a 'normal' life with a woman. Too bad. What a waste. (all of that love and affection that I have never been able to express to such a woman)
"Oh, well - okay - I give up..."
(Matthew 6:33 "drives a hard bargain" (so to speak) -
how absolutely perfect do I have to be? Some of the worst evil men on the earth have a wife who loves them and wants to be with them. Why not me?)
The reason I am saying all of this is to illustrate that we all have our "things" from the past.
And - even if I cannot have the kind of close relationship with a woman that I have always desired to have -
I actually take great joy in others that do/have - especially those around me that I love and care about.
I am only "offended" by the loneliness itself - not other people who enjoy a better existence in this life than I do.
However, I have also learned something else along the way - no matter what your past has been - there are 'blessings' you enjoy that some others do not enjoy - sometimes
have never enjoyed.
I believe forgiveness has never been a problem for me. I basically never hold grudges. If I become angry at something, it tends to quickly turn into forgive-and-forget - this is my 'normal'.
We are all different - have different pasts - have different strengths and weaknesses - have different abilities and talents.
I only hope that I can manage to utilize what abilities and talents
that I do have to help others as much as possible - in this life - while I still can...
