This is an uneducated speculation, but I wonder if lead poisoning has any connection with autism. There is no known cause, and people have been debating it forever. Some even speculated that having a child watch too much TV at an early age was to blame. I don’t buy it. What better way to weaken a country and disable a generation by providing their kids with toys containing high quantities of harmful metal? Lead is known to be connected to slowing mental development and lowering IQ. It can even cause speaking problems and hearing deficits. So who knows? I blame lead for my inablitiy to smell.
You just have to wonder…
“Awake, harp and lyre; I will awaken the dawn! I will give thanks to You, O LORD, among the peoples, and I will sing praises to You among the nations. For Your lovingkindness is great above the heavens, and Your truth reaches to the skies.” - Psalm 108:2-4
To be honest, I’m not a big fan of the typical Thanksgiving day meal. I don’t really like turkey, cranberry sauce, cornbread, or that other stuff… whatever it is. I do fill myself with mashed potatoes and pie, though (good eating). I am grateful that there is a day set aside to spend time with family and give thanks for what we have. Sometimes it’s the only time I thoroughly think about how fortunate I really am as it’s easy to get caught up in the busyness and stress of life. Pretty lame. (I must add that this title is ironic because I can’t smell. However, I am thankful for the four senses that I do have.) Anyway, we should always be reminded that there is so much more to life than just living. Everyday should be a day of thanksgiving, for we are redeemed.
“In all the world only one creature doesn’t easily recognize God in creation: man. Our eyes turn inward to our own thoughts, backwards to a word, an insult, a gesture from another, until we can’t see the now. In Yerushalayim, in the city, when we go there, you’ll see it on their faces. They’re taking on burdens not their own, like a servant stuffing his marketing bag with stones. They turn their minds toward objects and away from the God who made them. That’s what was meant when the Lord commanded that we have no other gods before Him. Business. Family squabbles. Gossip. Disapproval. The next big deal. Men arrange. Their plans go wrong. They rearrange. It’s seldom what they hoped it would be. They are disappointed. Or they’re satisfied with mediocrity when there is much more joy to be grasped by simply looking around and remembering to praise God!” - Jerusalem’s Hope
Filed under: Personal
Ten years ago I was digging around in a dirt pile… because that was what I did for fun, I guess. This pile of “dirt” consisted of mostly large, layered sandstone-like rocks. Living in Jackson, MI didn’t provide many outdoorsy experiences, but I found refuge in a more secluded area of the neighborhood which contained said pile of dirt. One day, while rummaging around, I happened upon this:
Throughout the rest of the time my family lived there, I found countless more of these strange fossils. There were huge layered boulders full of them. After moving we tossed the majority. But I kept a few. Now, eight years later, I’m in Jackson again. I decided to go back to my old neighborhood and see if the rock hill was still there. Sure enough, the area is as abandoned as ever and the pile of rocks remains. It’s harder to find the fossils now as a lot of them have been washed down the hill or crushed. It turns out these fossils are a type of straight-shelled nautiloid. According to my dictionary nautiloids are “a mollusk of a group of mainly extinct marine mollusks.” Basically little squid-like creatures.
The scads of crappy little fossils I found apparently swam in the sea “millions of years ago.” I think it would be interesting to dig up that plot of land and see what else are in those layered boulders. If I’m ever extremely desperate for money, fine specimens of nautiloid fossils can sell online anywhere from twenty to a hundred bucks. Yes, I looked it up. So… who has a good shovel?
