by song19 50 Replies latest jw friends
Personally I step back and look at the insignificance of myself. A tiny dot on an overcrowded planet.
The atoms that I am made of have been around for millions of years. They are just spending a few seconds in the form that for the moment I think of as me. I think of all the truly great people who have achieved so much yet had to leave. We are all hostages here and no one gets out alive.
Life can be hard to face but death is the release. It's no big deal really.
I've always been ok with the idea of dieing personally. I always considered it an option because I could get into a car wreck at anytime and loose my life. It was the realization that everyone I loved would probably die at some point that hit me hard especially when I think of my husband. What also hit me pretty hard was the realization that saving for retirement might be a good idea and that my biological clock is ticking and I might want to consider having children soon.
Like Switch said - JWs don't really mourn their lost loved ones. They don't accept that they're actually gone.
And like Carlos said - they don't ever LIVE either. This seems to be common aspect in all religions though. The life NOW is meaningless. What comes NEXT is what matters. I think this is the major tool religion uses to convince people to give up their time, money, freedom, whatever. Everything now is worthless, so why not give it up.
It is painful and scary to think about people you care about dying, and dying yourself. But balance that out with actually living, and I think we're much better off.
Yes this is difficult to come to terms with but it was my spirituality that allowed me to finally get my head round it properly.
Taking a look at everything round us, everything moves in cycles, moon cycles, earth cycles, the seasons, years, and days but fundamentally life, death and rebirth are the essential cycles we have to get used to.
As night turns to day, life, death and rebirth are synonymous when we realise this, everything is put into perspective. I find it helps the grieving process.
JWs do not grieve properly!
Gary
I'm still in Egypt swimming in de-nile.
Bring_the_Light:
27 years ago I didn't exist, some 50-60 years from now I'll stop existing.
Expanding on that a bit is this quote I stole from somewhere:
(apologies for the weird question marks throughout)
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Here?s an interesting little relativity-like ?thought experiment? regarding the experience of death:
Let me ask all of you, What exactly were you thinking about, worrying about, or experiencing on January 1st, 1800? Were you thinking, ?Boy, I?m really sick and tired of waiting to be born sometime in the next century,? or, ?This is kind of boring and scary, not being born yet?? I don?t think so. Although you can?t exactly remember just what you were thinking or feeling on January 1st, 1800, you can logically conclude that you were not thinking or feeling anything?because you weren?t born, and therefore didn?t exist yet. Your ?life??or that which is the entity specifically comprising your ?consciousness??was yet to be (and if your parents never meant, it never would be, in any event).
So, what is my point? Well, if we change the above date to January 1st, 2200?assuming that you won?t end up in the earthly Paradise, or in heaven, or in a dog?s body, or that they don?t invent a real bitch?n? version of Geritol in the immediate future that would allow you to live that long?well, ... wouldn?t it be the exact same thing as January 1st, 1800? I mean, nothing being ventured or being gained ... just, well, nothing (door knob status)?
So, when you think of it, there really is nothing to fear about the state of death ... because in the eternal time continuum, we?ve already been there before!
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Hope that helps a little.
om
I have sworn to come back as a ghost and haunt the halls of the Watchtower society.
Born into a Catholic family, I understood at a young age that everyone dies, and that I would too. When I joined the JWs the possibility of never dying was attractive to me. As I got to know the JWs over the years I decided that I didn't want to live in a "paradise" filled with lying, backbiting idiots. I was certain that, if I were unlucky enough to survive armageddon I would likely be given a chunk of swampland to live on while the elders got the best places to live. I had resolved to do myself in the day after armageddon.
W
Oompa is just a wee bit pissed off at God and WT......these reading glasses sooooooo suck.....and my knee and elbow have a touch tendentious.......I am now helbent on whipping myself back into shape....I want a good next ten years..........oompa
I want to express my thanks for everyone’s views on the subject. I wish I had time to quote you all and say how each one of you have helped me face this unpleasant reality.
Where I end up I do not know. Seeing family eventually die is a hard reality to face, as is realizing that I too will die. It will probably forever sadden me that I will have to leave my children that they will have to some day say goodbye to their mother. But like most of you said, don't worry be happy and live life to its full. Now to figure out how to do that? LOL
