As A JW You Never Have Time To Smell The Roses

minimus

You always were cramming to get to the next assignment. You had to personal study, read your daily text, read the Bible daily, prepare for field service, prepare for meetings, get to them at the proper time, preach as much as possible, etc. How did we do it all??? We never truly enjoyed life.

designs

The congregation I first attended, 1960-1969, was very outgoing but it was also the time when you could have 'Congregation Picnics' that got banned in the early 70s. The Overseer liked to hunt and took us to his ranch in Colorado. With 30 of us going through High School together we had our own little world of football, surfing and camping. I tried to bring that with me to other congregations over the years with mixed success. My wife and I would host an annual Beach Party and take the young people to museums and on mountain trips, some inner city kids had never been out of the city until then. One of the best trips was taking a group of young people to Sycamore Canyon near Malibu to see the annual migration of Monarch butterflies.

The last congregation I attended before leaving was a boring group. I would take my son and the sons of the other brothers camping but those dad's rarely came along.

The only ranking JW who ever encouraged taking time for one's self was Lowell Dixon when he was our CO, circa 1968.

minimus

Lowell Dixon, was he related to Tom Dixon?

wasblind

what I hated was the fact that the Elders would spew watchtower rhetoric

from the podium about what other folks kids should do, while allowin'

there own to do other wise

Some elders in the cong I attended children went to college, and joined dance classes

and one elder even let his daughter go to the Prom

The elders that held fast to WTS guidelines were no longer in association

wit their kids, they now shun thier children who only wanted a little normalcy

.

minimus

A big hamster's wheel going nowhere fast!

carla

Min, you should have had a ubm! then you would have double the guilt! time for meetings and making time to smell the roses with your evil but loved ubm! aww, poor guy, quite a balancing act.

WTWizard

And getting worse. You are always in an "emergency" to save lives. Fall leaves? Skip them and go to the next door. The Price is Right on TV? Never mind, the sermon you heard a billion times is more important even if you are not doing the talking. Christmas tree looks nice? You shouldn't even look at it. Flowers in spring or summer? No time, rush to the boasting session or field circus.

And when is there time to take a trip to get away? You go on vacation, say you are leaving New York City to tour the fine country of New Zealand. You are planning a 2-week stay there. So you have to find the Kingdumb Hell in Auckland first, see when their boasting sessions are, and do field circus in Auckland. Then, on to Rotorua and the Rotorua congregation. On to Tauranga, again to find the Tauranga congregation and do more field circus there. Then, to Wellington--more boasting sessions and field circus. Then, Christchurch and Queenstown, again to find their Kingdumb Hell. Finally, field circus in Dunedin. So much to skip on--no seeing the sights, no enjoying Maori culture, no riding the many fine rides or visiting the fine shops, no skiing or surfing, no nothing. What a waste--you could have done that in New York City.

I would rather enjoy the time. Whether right here in front of my keyboard where I can access many fine countries through YouTube, in a nearby park, or halfway around the world, there is much more to enjoy when you don't have to support field circus.

As A JW You Never Have Time To Smell The Roses

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