I’m working with number 1 son at the moment, he’s saving up cash for his forthcoming trip to Oz in May.
My other 2 sons work with me from time to time whenever they need to earn extra money. That way they can all run cars and enjoy good holidays. I enjoy it too, I always seem to develop a special rapport with whichever one is working with me.
They always ask me about my younger days when we are at work, and we have a good laugh when I tell them about some of the antics that I used to get up to. Sometimes they ask me about my life when I was in my 20’s and I tell them all about my casino days, or my old girl-friends or some of the dodgy deals that I once got myself involved in.
Then I feel a tinge of sadness. My own father was always the life and soul of the party as a younger man. He would drink the water that the daffodils resided in, just for a laugh. Every alternate Saturday he would go to see Bolton Wanderers at Burnden Park, most nights he would spend an hour in the pub. He would regale us with tales of his war years in the RAF whenever we had friends round.
Once he became a witness, things changed. Although he could occasionally be persuaded to recount an amusing tale, now there always came the same proviso: "I did that before I came into the truth, I didn’t know any better then".
If only he’d realised how much that remark devalued his life experiences. He didn’t need to be always in the right, always the head of the house with a wife in subjection and children “being obedient” as to the Lord. I loved him to bits and would have adored him for his failings as well as for his natural kindliness, if only I had been given the opportunity to so do.
Somewhere along the line, he picked up the belief that he must always be “Beyond reproach”, a “Servant of the Most high God”, a “Fitting Vessel” and a dozen or more such Theocratese expressions that, even now, still make me cringe.
Poor Dad really missed out on so many family things and activities. Everything always revolved around whether it was a "Matter of approval" or not, whether something was "Fitting for a witness of Jehovah". What a pity that so many JW fathers today don’t have the simple joy that can be had in just being a Dad being open with his kids!
But that's something that they can never understand, as long as they are part of the WTS, that is.
Englishman.
