by Esmeralda 60 Replies latest jw friends
tdogg, I still love Vice reruns on TNN. The music, the music! I still love to speed down Lake Shore Drive, with all the windows wide open, looking at the Chicago skyline, and blasting "Something In the Air Tonight". Ah, those were the days, when crime was simple! And Crockett never got dirty! Tubbs never broke a sweat, even in a 3 pc.
April
"Love never dies." Voivodul Vlad Draculea (from Bram Stoker's Dracula-1992)
We used to call the back room, the beating room instead of the meeting room.
We used to call it the "rubber room" :)
Tom
"The truth was obscure, too profound and too pure; to live it you had to explode." ---Bob Dylan
It's thread like this that remind why I don't belong anymore. Petty elders and their pet peeves who lord it over the congregation. One case like any example here is laughable, but these things go on week in week out. And all the lurkers here know it now...these men aren't appointed by holy spirit.
Here's my thought on chess and why I guess I didn't stay an elder very long. I once used chess pieces as an illustration in a service meeting item. I asked who liked to play chess. A few newbies raised their hands. "I must be one of the few," I replied. I knew that some still harbored ideas of chess being a war game and not for "Christians". Plenty of others wouldn't own up for fear of being judged. I never got dragged in the backroom but by then I was not often challenged.
The thing with the backrooms in the last hall I was in (typical quick-build design) was that they had large windows. The one being counseled was on view and it was obvious what was going on. It just leads to more gossip and divions bewteen the spiritually strong (not caught yet) the the weak (the unfortunate with problems or twitted on by their so-called brother or sister who self-righteously ran to the elders with some lame tale). Lots of that goes on, I knew. I guess that's the other reason I didn't stay an elder for long.
Thirdson
Thirdson
'To avoid criticism, say nothing, do nothing, be nothing'
Here's another thought on music and elder types. During an informal part of an elders meeting the PO was decrying pop music and said that things went down hill from the Beatles onwards. He blamed all the "guitar and drum bands" (his words) for all the social ills effecting the world. I replied that the decadence of today's society can actually be traced back to the "big band sound" of the 40's. He shut-up and I didn't say anymore. I just made it up but I knew his music taste.
Thirdson
'To avoid criticism, say nothing, do nothing, be nothing'
I got called before a committee about my mother, who had just come out of the closet. I was supposed to "testify" about the "situation," so I met the entire elder body in the basement of the PO's house. The PO's wife had set out some pastries, and the elders loaded up plates and cups of juice and coffee before the meeting began -- evidently, this was going to be an entertaining session for them. The Q&A went, in part, a little like this:
PO: So, Dedalus, your mother is a lesbian?
Me: Um, I guess so.
PO: What makes you say that she's a lesbian?
Me: Well, she says she's a lesbian.
PO: So, do you think she really is?
Me: Well, I don't know why she'd say she is if she isn't, you know?
Elder #2: So, this means your mother is having sex with her former pioneer partner, with whom she now lives?
Me: I wouldn't know that.
Elder #3: You mean you mother never mentioned anything to you about her physical relationship with her partner.
Me: Um ... look, she's my mother. It's not the sort of thing we'd talk about.
PO: But she is a lesbian.
Me: Right.
PO: Well, think about it. If she's a lesbian, that means she approves of lesbian sex, right?
Me: Come on ... this is my mother we're talking about.
Elder #5: We know this is uncomfortable, but we have to ask ...
PO: What were saying, Dedalus, is that if a person professes to be a lesbian, it follows that that person is having lesbian sex, right?
Me: Well, I profess to be heterosexual, and I can tell you that I'm definitely not having any heterosexual sex.
PO: Let's not get confused by semantics, now, Dedalus.
Me: Then I don't know what you want me to say. Frankly, I don't like talking about my mother's sex life.
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It went on from there, but you get the drift. One elder took notes through the meeting. I always imagined he was really drawing dirty cartoons ...
Dedalus
ROFLMAO
: Well, I profess to be heterosexual, and I can tell you that I'm definitely not having any heterosexual sex.
See, Dedalus, this is why I love you. What a wit. I can just see you standing there telling them that LOL.
It went on from there, but you get the drift. One elder took notes through the meeting. I always imagined he was really drawing dirty cartoons ...
LOL! They were probably drawing stick figures having lesbian sex *lol* They just wanted the details so that they could think about it later when they were having sex with their wives, (like Sister Pastry over there) Oh brother.
I bet they had large print bibles in their laps too didn't they? And what did they think, you and mom sat around the table discussing her sex life? Or did they think that you were really a lesbian yourself and so would know all about it if the could just pry the closet door open wide enough?
What a joke. Like I said, they don't go after pedophiles but they do stuff like that. These people couldn't shepherd a flock of blind sheep inside a locked pen. With a sheep dog.
love ya
essie
In 1968 our CO counseled my sister and I, both teenagers, on the immodest length of our skirts (just grazing the kneecap). Back then ALL teenage girls wore mini-skirts except Witnesses and Holy Rollers. We stuck out like sore thumbs at school. You all know the drill. These days girls can wear skirts of nearly any length and be in fashion, but not back then! This brother complained he could see up our dresses when he stood on the podium (the little Jezebels that we were). My mother listened to his spiel, then quietly opened up on him. "Brother ____, what are you doing looking at my daughter's legs from the platform any way?" He was literally shocked speechless. Needless to say, my family was never popular with the elders and good little Witnesses were probably told to avoid us.
Farkel, I think I would have gone stark-raving mad as a kid without the solace of good ol' rock and roll, and that included the Beatles. As an adolescent you often feel that "music is your only friend." Has anyone ever noticed that elders comdemn any type of music they personally find distasteful as Satanic or worldly, but rationalize that their musical taste is okay. I remember one elder, a Norwegian immigrant, who had an affinity for Abba, a scandinavian group. The song "Fernando" was next to Godliness, but, of course, all other rock and roll was from the devil. Go figure.
They didn't like the fact that I had Docs (boots) They REALLy didn't like that they were cherry red. They also thought my hair was a bit too long (just touching my ears) So I grew it to my shoulders. Strangely enough they never approached ME with these problems, but whined to my mother. I think I scared them *flutters eyelashes*
Oh god...
Well, I was told off for taking a Sunday off to do a Charity bike ride.
I and my then girlfriend were called in front of the elders for no reason other than she had been disfellowshipped, was now re-instated, and I was going out with her, and the fact she had a kid made their ickle bwains hurt.
Of course, if the shits had left me alone and my parents hadn't come down on me, I'd have gone out with her for longer than six weeks before getting engaged, and longer than six months before getting married. But they forced my had and I got into a horrible marriage.
There was a brother who'd have a go when I didn't wear a matching suit and trouser; he argued they had to match even though the TMS said 'suit-jacket' as the standard of dress.
My hair was too long.
My jean were too tight.
I played Dungeons and Dragons and got found out.
My taste in music did not include The Lighthouse Family so was un christian (I actually had a Led Zeppelin Album).
I am so glad I'm not a Dub any longer!
Keep on rocking in the free world...
Farkel,
Re Harold King, the month he was released he gave a talk at a London assembly. He said that while in prison he had written a Kingdom Song and he sang it over the mike.
It was "House to house", it was the first time that anyone had heard it, and the auddience picked up the gist of it and hummed along.
Even then, as a callow youth, I recalled how much like a nursery song it sounded.
Englishman.
Nostalgia isn't what it used to be....
