I Was a Practicing Idiot (page 2)

Billy the Ex-Bethelite

Oh yeah Jeff, well I was a bigger idiot than you!

SO THERE!

cantleave

I just come on here these days to point out the idiocy of eggnog and godrulz et al.

LV101

i can't believe i fell for it after telling a brainwashed family member for yrs. something wasn't right while i went ahead and read the literature.

i think we so desperately want a world of justice and become swept away with hope. many times i ask my husband and another lawyer how they practice law knowing there's no such thing as justice and mankind's immense suffering. i realize the system protects/helps in many situations. living forever to fulfill our dreams and never dying along with the animals is the best i'd ever been offered plus it was happening very soon. i still want to have hope in a higher power to help mankind so right there sums it up for me. ahhh, fantasies are so hard to walk away from.

breakfast of champions

JEFF - about 20 years ago, when I was in my 20's, there was a 'major situation' in out congregation the ultimately pitted me and a few others against the elder body, the arrogant asshole of a bethel PO, and the CO. Without going into any details, I was told that if I didn't basically shut up about it, I would be causing divisions and that was grounds for disfellowshipping. I was practically apostate back then!

Ultimately, the matter was cleared up when someone wrote the GB for clarification. But all that time I thought This is Jehovah testing me, these brothers are imperfect, I must stick with it! Talk about idiotic.

Learned a few years later that one of the elders involved in the whole thing was on the verge of a nervous breakdown over it and was about ready to bail himself.

So here we are 20 years later and I only figured out the whole thing is bullshit last year. I guess I've got a steeper learning curve than you.

TMS

I won't concede superior idiocy to any of you guys. Did you stay in 50 years like my wife and I? I rest my case. . . . . . . . ..After spending a few years daydreaming about what could have been, should have been, we began looking around for opportunities in our community. We were thinking about such things as serving turkey dinners to the homeless on Thanksgiving, etc., but never did.

Meanwhile without the shackles of JW neutrality I enjoyed commenting in the online version of our local newspaper on a variety of issues. Based on that we were invited to a political event. We had no political interest but the meet and greet was being held in a historic building that we had never been inside. We took numerous pictures of the building but also documented the event on Facebook. My wife videotaped while I took pictures and wrote a short synopsis of the occasion. We began to be invited to all events and became sort of the official online journalists for our city of 200,000 on the Mexican border. We branched out to attending all sorts of events, covering them for our Facebook blog.

I began to also comment on a social activist internet site, becoming aware of certain issues affecting our city. The commenting back and forth led to face-to-face meetings and action. We spoke at the city commission meetings and blocked a corrupt deal. The mayor challenged us to a public debate that was also videotaped locally. Our group grew to 5,000 members online but with a smaller active core. We tackled other local issues after research and pooling our skills.

It is almost eery to be using public speaking skills, engaging in group discussion, even block walking for certain candidates. Of course, some are baffled as to why such things seem to come so naturally to us. Only a few know our actual background, although they can't possibly understand. This is of course a very personal solution not fitting everyone's values. We have found camaraderie, some fulfillment and an outlet for a few skills we just happened to acquire. As with any group there are personality conflicts, hurt feelings, ego management, etc. But the judgementalism, the hypocracy, the pressure to do more is absent. We are self-scheduled, cherry picking what interests us. Our social contacts include the full spectrum of ages, ethnicities and economic wherewithall.

It almost feels like we didn't waste fifty years but we did.

tms

btw: Because of our association with social activists, we got connected to CASA, Court Appointed Special Advocates. This group advocates for children placed in foster care. We've recently become ad litem representatives for the children which means we stand up for them in court, giving a report of what we feel in in their best interests.

MrFreeze

I'm a practicing idiot. I've gotten pretty good at it.

Quandry

Wow, TMS, you and your wife are making a good recovery! Seems you just needed to find out where you were needed most.

At least no more time will be "wasted." You're on to bigger and better things.

I Was a Practicing Idiot