Cage: thank you for your thoughts but I would like to address a few things you said to me.
On your deathbed you will not be able to bargain for one more minute you wasted in field service at the meeting and assemblies. You are correct. On my deathbed I will have some regrets of times in my life that I wasted. You will too and so will everyone else on this earth.
Your parents have had their life and made their choices.Unfortunately my parents got sucked into this cult. They were simple immigrants who ended up investing their whole life in the organization. Its sad! However, I can't change that now. What I will NEVER DO is fault them for doing that they thought was best for themselves and their children.
What about you? When I started to figure things out, the first thing was educate myself. I got in contact with Ray Franz, visited with Andersons, dialouged with Tom Cabeen and read everything I could get my hands on. Once I became intrinsically sound, then I made the choice to ease out of my "amost 20 years of pioneering". I made the choice to go back to school ( in my forties). I got a degree and landed an amazing job. I also made the choice to instill in my kids the value of an education and sent them off to university. So please don't feel sorry for me.
It's laughable for you to tell me I have so much to learn. This was a reactive response to your generalized blanket statement that : this board is full of more people trying to stay in the org rather than leave it. I have no interest in keeping that kind of company. If you are trying to set your own" personal boundary" why do you have to announce it to the rest of the forum? Take your leave and be done with it. You appear to be an intelligent person- why make a comment that will generate incendiary responses?
Do you know how much I treasure [relationship with parents] the real relationship I have with them now? No you don't because you have never tried? I take umbrage to this statement. In reality we don't know each other. You can't begin to judge my relationship with my parents. Love and respect are important ingredients in any relationship, especially in the parent-child situation. I know that my parents would accept me even if I left with a "bang". But I also know it would cause them a great deal of pain grief . I CHOOSE not be the instrument for their pain and grief. At 83 and 76 my parents days are numbered.
So I go along with the status quo. I go to meeting (not all ) I go out saturday in service (spent in coffee shop)It's not a perfect situation--but it's doable for me.
I don't think I am doing anything than validating ( and now arguing with) their indecision and watching them waste their own lives. Really Cage, I don't feel my life is wasted. Unfortunately the Jw experience is something that is not easily shed. You and I and everyone else who has had the pleasure or better displeasure of being acquainted with this cult, will carry it till the day we die.
I am trying to make lemonade with the lemons I've been given. Everyone deals with it differently. Please don't feel sorry for me. I am a big girl. Maybe even a princess once in a while
