I've been reading more lately than I ever have, now that I'm on the chopping block to be DF. (Actually for the last 2 months, I've been reading away like mad. I recommend it as a great way to get perspective on life and JWs)
I just finished a short story by Stephen Vincent Benet called "By the Waters of Babylon." (He also wrote "The Devil and Daniel Webster")It's sort of science fiction, but from the thirties, so it's not real high-tech futuristic. It's about a group of primitive people who have survived some destruction of civilization(Of course they don't remember that, it's been so long) The story is told from the point of view of a young man who becomes a priest and decides to journey East to the place of the Gods, which is of course forbidden. He's actually returning to New York, but you don't realize that until toward the end. (Think "Planet of the Apes" and Charlton Heston discovering the Statue of Liberty)He eventually realizes that the inhabitants of the city were really just men, with some really cool technology. When he gets back to his people, he tells his father what he's found out. The exchange is interesting:
"I wished to tell all the people but he showed me otherwise. He said, "Truth is a hard deer to hunt. If you eat too much truth at once, you may die of the truth. It was not idly that our forefathers forbade the Dead Places." He was right-it is better the truth should come little by little."
This struck a nerve with me. For the first time two Saturdays ago, five years after suspecting that the "truth" isn't true after all, I
told the elders what I really think. It took me 5 long years of real inner turmoil and struggle to be able to handle the truth. Truth was, indeed, "a hard deer to hunt." Sometimes I felt like I was the hunted. It has been painful, "eating" so much truth, I couldn't have done it all at once.
If there's a moral for those who may be doubting and lurking on this board, it's this; take your time. It's a long painful journey for some. Don't give up, try not to despair. When you make it to the other side you WILL feel better.
