- cubicle
n. 1. A small compartment, as for work or study. 2. A small sleeping
compartment, especially within a dormitory. 3. small area set off by walls
for special use [syn: booth, stall, kiosk]
--------------------------
I figured out a while back that I married my mother. Sure, in certain ways my wife is more sophisticated than my mother but in other, more fundamental ways, these two women could easily pass as twins. That's not necessarily a bad thing. In one way, it is.
As loyal JWs I think they fairly represent the average Dub. Both live in cozy worlds where everything is explained; where foreign ideas are dismissed as demon-inspired, selfish or otherwise worthless; where questions that conflict with their brand of "truth" are readily dismissed; and, generally speaking, where every idea has either a black or white connotation. What little gray areas exist definitely lean one way or the other, based on the way the latest Watchtower reads. Usually it leans toward the "don't do it or else you'll die at Armageddon" end of the scale.
Now, don't get me wrong. These women aren't dumb -- far from it. Mentally they are typical women, meaning that, put up against the typical man they will easily run circles around him without breaking a sweat and with one hand tied behind their backs. On the other hand...
Mentally, she (and my wife) lives in a neat, sparsely furnished cubicle. The way she looks at the world, shaped to some extent by her upbringing out in the country but more by her life as a Dub, is extremely simplistic. It hems her in, coddles her sensitive sensibilities, and constantly assures her that her simplistic view of life and people is correct. Beyond her control, every once in a while, life--reality--forces itself in on her. When that happens, it's as though she walks over to one of the walls of her neat little cubicle and peeks outside. I don't doubt that she understands what she sees, but she closes the curtain anyway since it conflicts with what goes on in her neat little cubicle.
I'm radically different from either my mother or my wife. Sometimes, I also take a peek outside of *my* cubicle. Reality forces itself in on me and my perceptions of what Life really is. Instead of closing the curtain, most times I step outside to examine more closely what I have seen or heard. In a sense, I hold it up to the light, turn it all around. If it looks like food, I might even taste it... to see for myself if it's good. Sometimes, it is.
I end up extending a wall of *my* cubicle to embrace this "something new." It does not challenge me to change, to accept that something as good as this "new thing", formerly unknown to me, really is good. Worthwhile. Honorable. Acceptable. Call it a paradigm shift, an altered state, a heightened worldview. I call it growth, which is what life should be about.
Most of us here have experienced what I am describing here. Because of the realization that we have come to accept about the Watchtower, we have gone through a radical change in thinking--not a painless undertaking for anyone. Many people totally loose it when that happens since it *is* so hard to deal with. It's not a small, insignificant happening in one's life.
But, here we are. Still trying to make sense of it all. Extending the walls of our own personal cubicles... picking up those new thoughts, new perspectives... holding them to the light. Growing. We are champions. Overcomers. In some ways, I don't mind saying it.... we are heroes.