by PopeOfEruke 30 Replies latest jw experiences
Recently I was inspired by a comment from a JW. In the Knocking documentary on PBS, Joseph (?) Kempler, a concentration camp survivor, stated that he was happy just to be still alive.
Me, too, Mr. Kempler. Now we can do something with our lives and enjoy them as we see fit, barring things beyond our control.
Regards,
SandraC
wish I had done some things (I mean a lot of things) differently yes but everyone on this planet would be the same. Live, learn, love and enjoy the ride...
Watch parenthood - love that movie. Kid with the bucket on his head was my brother...
Inside the JW cult - YES, Now that I'm out - not a chance
nj
Pope, thank you for bringing up this subject. For a while I have wanted to broach a similar subject, but wasn't really sure if I should. My mom began her "life saving" Bible study when I was about seven. By the time I was eight my family was broken apart, and at night I would wish that I could just stop existing. That shadow has been with me ever since. I can't imagine what it is like for people who don't have that.
Talk about it Pope. It takes the power away from those negative feelings when you let them out.
I'm not sorry. FWIW, being born into the cult and then leaving made me into who I am today: someone who has a lot of chutzpah and doesn't give a flying f&&k who thinks what about her. Of course it isn't easy and there are still things about my upbringing that affect me to this day.
Nathan
you hit the nail on the head. It's the shadow I woud love so dearly to throw off.
But what's so confusing is "What sort of person would I be today if I hadn't been brought up a JW? Would I be a more complete person, if I didn't have that shadow, that dark cloak of JW-ism that is seemingly impossible to throw off? Or would I be happier?"
Personally I can pass most days but still have to deal with close relatives still in the cult. It's nice they still speak to me but man! sometimes they say things that just bring me down. Life is such a roller-coaster of feeling bad and feeling good.
Pope
Not when I take my meds....
changeling
Pope asked,
"What sort of person would I be today if I hadn't been brought up a JW? Would I be a more complete person, if I didn't have that shadow, that dark cloak of JW-ism that is seemingly impossible to throw off? Or would I be happier?"
The way I look at it, whatever you would have become would have been more fully an expression of who you are and that means that yes, you would have been happier, because you would have been fulfilling more of your potential.
Of course, I suppose the same mistakes and errors of judgement that befall everyone else might have happened too, but being a JW didn't protect you in any kind of abolute way from those pitfalls.
I am sure that I would have pursued a more complete education if I was allowed and encourage to do so. I might also have joined the millitary, so maybe in a parallel universe my skull is lying in a rice paddy somewhere. I'm OK with that. I'd much rather be me than be a clone of Nathan Knorr, über-theocrat. I feel truncated, like something has been cut off. ...and I'm not talking about the mohel's work.
Seriously, this is not like you pope.
Think of the" butterfly effect". If you change any little thing in the past, it has an impact on the future. Who you are today is a result of your life experiences. Sure, we may have been better, happier, richer, saner...had we not been raised as witnesses, but on the other hand who knows? And who we are today, the people who come here and kid around, and lift each other up and offer suggestions, and answer questions, and go looking for core88, we are the result of our past. Aren't we special???
changeling
I wish I was never born into this cult. I know for a fact that I would have been much happier, pursued more things, made more friends, and the list goes on and on.
Every now and then I regret ever being born, but then if I hadnt been born there would be one less apostate expsosing the Watchtower, so it is a 2 edged sword either way.
