the darkling thrush

by John Doe 15 Replies latest jw friends

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  StAnn

  CoCo, although I mostly agree with you, since this is ax ex-JW forum, I felt that my innate awareness was constantly being assaulted and oppressed by virtue of being raised by the WTS. Even now, many years after leaving them, I find that I have to work on being more aware and not just ignoring things in the news, etc., and being more "present" in my life. As a Dub, all questions were met with the reply, "Wait on Jehoober." Any concerns about health or quality of life were met with statements that it would all be solved in the "New World." Every thought and awareness of life around me was beaten down into a dull anticipation of an uncertain, unclear future when every question would be answered, every problem solved.

  I believe I was naturally aware and the Dubs beat it out of me. It has taken conscious effort on my part to overcome that.

  That is why a Dub can read historical materials that discuss 586/7 CE and still cling to the belief that the WTS is right about 607 CE, because their brains just aren't quite "awake" enough to fathom the enormity of the disparity.

  Nature and nurture, yes, but sometimes destructive nurture can completely override nature.

  Doe, I did like the poem, though. Thanks for sharing.

  St. Ann
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  compound complex

  Does living in a savage jungle of primordial renaissance confluence render one immersed in cognitive dissonance because choice is only one of many illussory "options" young men exercise on the train tracks to hell?
  John Doe
  
  
  I hearken back to my own youthful days of treading confidently upon the Highway of Holiness toward the promised Paradise. Though genuinely humble and meek by nature [truly no youth of my generation compared to myself or Moses, my mentor], I, nevertheless, worked out my personal salvation with "fear and trembling," "hating even the inner garment stained by the flesh," yet fully cognizant of the immutable fact that my personal free moral agency would lead me directly and unassailably into the Kingdom.

  The emphasis laid upon seeking meekness and justice in order to be hidden in the day of Jehovah's anger was not lost upon me. The point is decidedly moot, however, as I have ever been disinclined toward sin. The tracks to hell, therefore, poor lost soul, are perhaps yours to follow if genetic predisposition has deemed free moral agency unattainable in your situation. I would pray that in the snatch of time remaining you might find solace in the song of the thrush.

  Cheerful little bugger!

  Nature and nurture, yes, but sometimes destructive nurture can completely override nature.

  StAnn

  Oh yes, indeed!

  Given the serious tenor of your response to my otherwise non-astute projections into the realm of bird and beast, I shall reply in the affirmative to all your observations. Only now am I conducting myself on the frightening but exciting road of self-discovery, in so far as making personal choices without consulting a higher terrestrial, ecclesiastical authority.

  When I fall I can blame only myself, if even there's need to ascribe blame.

  Thank you for your reality check!

  CC
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  SPAZnik

  Your question, though likely well-intended, reveals in less-than-artless fashion the prevailing attitude among today's earnest but misguided youthful intelligentsia that nature and nurture are mutually exclusive. Further from the truth could nothing be. An inexorable intertwining of genetic predisposition and environmental and cultural mores join forces to produce a veritable human enigma whose redoubtable sum is greater than its respective parts.

  LOL. That was the horniest thing I've read all day.
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  compound complex

  Greetings, SPAZnik:

  I have it on good authority that the description attributed to Saint Paul at 2 Corinthians 10:10 is, in reality, a forward projection of the personage and accomplishments of a modern-day internet poster:

  "His letters are weighty and strong, but his bodily appearance is weak, and his speech of no account."

  Said poster, ironically, is a laconic whose sparse verbiage consists of one-syllable grunts. In addition [or subtraction], he cannot type.

  Yours truly,

  Thomas D. Thrush
  
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  SPAZnik

  Dear Tom,

  I understand. I'm better on paper too. ;o)

  Sincerely,
  SCHPAZnik
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  compound complex

  Greetings and salutations, fellow watcher and lover of the winged beastie:

  [that would be you, SCHPAZnik - clever moniker!]

  And aged thrush, frail, gaunt and small,
  In blast-beruffled plume,
  Had chosen thus to fling his soul
  Upon the growing gloom.

  With you in the cheerful choice to fling our souls upon the growing gloom,

  T.D.T