by karter 44 Replies latest jw experiences
We have mention the old timers that didn,t prepare for
their twilight years, you would think they would be in the
forefront in encouraging their kids to prepare for the future.
Don,t make the same mistake we made. But nooo, wash windows
and clean toilets you can become a elder or pioneer, who needs
college, look at us. Get married at 19, have a bunch of kids, no skills
and live happily ever after. Misery love company, but your kids.
Way back in the '60s I remember an elderly couple of the 'remnant' who had been in the organisation since its early days. They had put off having children when they married in the 1920s in order to devote all their time and efforts into the preaching work in the firm belief that armageddon was imminent and there would be plenty of time to have a family in the New System. They were a lovely couple and would have made wonderful parents. I can remember thinking what a waste it was. They were really kind to me and had a lot of patience for us youngsters, I think they enjoyed being surrogate grandparents. One day when I was visiting them, the elderly brother admitted to me how sad he was that his wife had never had the children she longed for, and still held on desperately to the hope that armageddon would come before they died of old age so there was still a remote chance of fulfilling their dreams of a family. I wonder how they both felt when they drew their last breaths, and to think that was back in the 1960s!
Since then two more generations of elderly JWs have watched their dreams slip away as they die of old age. When I think back to my congregation when I was a teenager, practically everyone of my parents generation who were only in their 30s/40s and full of anticipation, many selling their homes and giving up jobs in order to pioneer during the 'last days' are now dead. My father died in the mid 1980s and my now elderly mother repeatedly says that she can't believe she has lived so long without him (in other words, she can't believe armageddon hasn't come yet). She is still as faithful as ever, attending meetings whenever her health allows and having brothers come to her house with their bible studies and to study the Watchtower there so she can join in, yet I know she is very disappointed the way things have turned out.
My mother in law became extremely bitter in her last years. She continued gong to meetings but she had actually said back in ther 1980s that if armageddon didn't come soon it would be 'the biggest con of the century'. Her exact words! She died in her '90s still attending meetings but her zest for 'the truth' had long gone.
Yet still they carry on, generation after generation of disappointed people wasting their lives chasing that carrot on a stick. When will it ever end
Sad & depressing reading all of those experiences.
Despite the fact that they are likely experiences from all over the country, even all over the world, I feel like I know/knew the person in each story. That means you can take all these sad experiences and multiply them over and over and over dozens of times -- hundreds of times.
It's a damn shame.
After thirty five years we feel cheated,and stupid -- thats how we feel!
Yeah, me too.
Doc
Marked
I'm only a relatively recent convert, baptised in 2000 and I never thought I'd finish university. I did in 2004. Even this time last year I'd been waiting for the big A and had pretty much sunk into an endless present, quashing all my talents and desires. Been trapped in the 'present' for years now. That's what the WT has you do: put everything on hold. You live totally in the present, or next 6 months at most. You get nothing accomplished except keeping a roof over your head at some dreary job which causes depression, and even more tired out by the 'theocratic treadmill.'
No wonder the oldies are getting tired, and the baby boomers are panicking, the young ones are buying houses, and my age group is...waking up. Along with others.
Now my health is stuffed at 32, and I'm finding it difficult to find part time work. Been offered full-time, but as I said, my health is stuffed and I can't physically or mentally do it.
I'm thinking of writing my biography. Cult survivor stories are very interesting.
