Fark,
I like your view of Christmas and am glad you are now celebrating it with a vengeance!. Yes it is time for me and my family to recapture our minds our hearts and our spirituality. Exploring the things the publishing corporation forbade us to do. Yes, you are absolutely right Farkel. Jehovah's Witnesses have truly sold thier souls to the corporation. The Alter of the Mindless, Heartless Corporate High Priests. I choose the family connections, future newly made traditions, wonderful sights and smells and the look on childrens faces. No more dysfunction.
'Christmas' - (another view)
by Farkel 25 Replies latest jw friends
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ARoarer
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waiting
Hey Farkel,
I'm sorry for your childhood experiences. No kid deserves the lousy life - being a jw or not. Truth is, I would think a large percentage of adults have lousy memories - all kinds of ways to have a lousy childhood. I know I'll always carry mine.
Turning the coin......my husband was raised by grandparents & parents who were incredibly devout jw's - and I asked him last night about his growing up. What was it like? He shrugged, said he got into the same kind of troubles that worldly kids did, got teased at school sometimes, learned to be good enough to argue the kids down. He even ran the flag up on the flagpole sometimes - just for the idea of doing it. Had his own car at 16, pioneered after graduating for a couple of years - experienced the "Tent City" at long conventions when young.
He played the piano too, was good in art also. Went to trade school afterwards (would have made an excellent engineer if it had been different.) But he didn't feel that he missed out on that much as a kid. They visited with other kids a lot, and his parents were poor factory workers - but he always had toys and good friends.
I ran across a picture of your extended family on another thread - absolutely marvelous. You know, even kids who have lousy childhoods sometimes never get the family in the end - like you have. Sometimes it's not the jw way that takes them away....it's just the way it is. I know.
You have a fine family, I hope you continue to enjoy it in the present and in the future.
waiting
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Farkel
: know, even kids who have lousy childhoods sometimes never get the family in the end - like you have.
None of them were ever dubs, that's why!
Farkel
"When in doubt, duck!"
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Mum
I was a convert to the JW religion. The early years of my life were so wonderful with my grandparents out in the country where we would go out into the woods to find a Christmas tree. We were very poor, so Christmas gifts meant a lot.
My daughter, however, was denied Christmas as a child. We now go all out! My granddaughter has always had Christmas. We love Christmas and lavish one another with high-calorie treats and whatever we want that is within our means.
Our family was partly dysfunctional, and partly not. Most of my family are not JW's, and they have welcomed me back as a family member and never mention all of the years that I would have almost nothing to do with them except to try to persuade them that they needed to be as stridently wretched as I was.
Life is good!
Merry Christmas to all! But first, Happy Thanksgiving!
Seize the day, and put the least possible trust in tomorrow. - Horace
I have learned to live each day as it comes and not to borrow trouble by dreading tomorrow. - Dorothy Dix
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Ranchette
Farkle,
I felt like you were retelling my childhood memories also and
my husband has shared similar stories from his childhood.All I can say about Josephs post to you is that it was rude and condescending!
Obviously all who claimed to be witnesses didn’t live the hard-core JW life that the organization demanded of it’s members.I found that my families claims to putting “the kingdom first” was a convienient excuse and justification for them to be cheap scapes as well as shitty neglectful parents.
They continue to use same excuse to continue to ignore my sister and I as well as their grandchildren.
I believe you will find many more ex JWs who will identify with your memories than those of Joseph.
I am happy that his life and memories weren’t as oppressive as ours or that he dealt with it like a robot instead of a person with feelings, but I do not approve of his attitude towards you. I’m sure he could care less but I wanted to say it anyway.
This will be our first Christmas.
It’s time to celebrate life instead of enduring suffocating bondage!
Never again will I allow an organization to suck all spirit and happiness from my life!Ranchette
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JWinSF
Regarding Joseph Joachim's posting:
He is definitely in the minority, IMO. Farkel's experience is by far the norm, also IMO. Young people often do not know that they have options. In fact, they don't really have options [like going to College since there is the very real fear of losing contact with other "righteous" JWs for not following "Mother's" direction]. Regarding the point that JJ made about not having experienced joy since leaving the JWs like he had at the doors as a JW, boy, do I feel sorry for him.
All I can say is that I'd never experienced joy and freedom in life until I left the JWs at age 45. Now, 8 years later, I've never regretted leaving nor ever thought of going back. Why would I want to turn back to that vomit? I know a fairly large number of other ex-JWs in the San Francisco Bay area through three different groups. I don't ever recall hearing any say that they weren't coerced into leading antiseptic JW lives. They all speak of having been denied college educations due to their involvement with the JWs. I also don't recall any of them saying that their lives were more joyful before as a JW than after.
Farkel, as always, you're kewl!!! JJ, well, I think he needs some help.
