After a life in the Jehovah's witness all you can say is you existed

by Star tiger 12 Replies latest jw friends

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  wobble

  I do not look back on my life in the JW/WT religious cult as merely existing, I made sure I enjoyed myselfas much as possible, and that my family did too.

  Yes there are many things that would have been different had we not been trapped in a mind-controlling cult, some aspects of life would have been much better had we not been in, but, for me, it was a life that was without many of the bad problems many non-JW's experience, drugs,alcoholism divorce etc etc.

  Life since walking away from the cult has got better and better in so many ways, you can really live life once you are free, but I do not dismiss 58 years of my life as totally wasted, I did make those years as much fun as I possibly could in the circumstances.
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  cantleave

  I disagree. Yes I was decieved and held some irrational fears, but it was more than existing. I had some good times, with people I really liked. I didn't walk away because I was unhappy with my life as a JW, I walked away because I was being lied to.

  If I didn't have kids I may have kept my head below the parapet, resigned as an elder, did the minimum required to maintain social connections (a few hour FS a month and minimal meeting attendance) and continued being a witness.
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  WTWizard

  During the years I was a witless, life consisted of working, field circus, and boasting sessions. On the days when I had time, I had to be out in field circus. And, there was almost nothing going on except theocraptic items.

  Even non-witless things were subdued. My music collection was down substantially from before I became a witless--much more boring. I had to worry about bad songs, and when I was watching TV (usually things like Supermarket Sweep), it was with the boasting session just beyond it. Wheel of Fortune would just be starting, and then that damn car would show up and it was time to go to the boasting session. Then I had to do field circus the next morning.

  At least now I have my computer, and I know I will not be hearing that damn horn honking (or the car pulling up to my place) right in the middle of Wheel of Fortune. Of course my job is during the middle of the night, so I don't usually get to watch Wheel of Fortune these days. But again, I don't have to waste all morning out in field circus.

  As for their schedule they wanted me to follow, it is as bad as preparing to move halfway around the world is likely to be. But at least doing that, you are accomplishing something you hope is going to be worthwhile. Packing, booking plane flights (and trying to get around the US cancer scanners, opting for the Canadian ones instead), and moving sure beats the endless boasting sessions, field circus, and pious-sneering that the witlesses would have to do. (Not to mention, pious-sneering is endless and pointless.)