Theocratic School Talks, they were the worst ! hated doing them, did you ?

by run dont walk 33 Replies latest jw friends

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  Francois

  I really enjoyed giving talks. For some reason, I figured it would be a handy skill to have as an adult, and boy was it!!

  And it was the mistakes I made in the school that helped me the most. Like if I left my notes home and had to just fake it. When I got into radio a few years later, I could go twenty, thirty minutes from the material on the label in my shirt if, say, the baseball game were to be rain delayed.

  Then a few years after that, I was making a living selling Lanier Word Processors to people I didn't know from Adam. And the damned things cost $17,000.00. I tell you I could get all wound up and become the beta model of the Energizer Bunny. I can still talk the horns off a billygoat. That comes in handy when you've got her in your arms and she's just looking at you like a turtle looking at a jellyfish. It's helpful, I tell ya.
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  talesin

  interesting question, and you brought back memories of a good thing , unlike the (dreaded!!) field service.

  tms was pretty much the only thing i enjoyed. i used to fill in pretty much every week for whoever didn't show up. i used go downstairs and whip up the assignment during the first 1/2 hour of the meeting. i was the heroine of the tms 'we can always count on her to fill in'. it was the only (positive) attention that i got as a child/teenager/girl, although i was jealous of the boys because they didn't have to couch their 'householder'.

  i was 5 when they first stuck me up on stage at a convention, and found out i am a natural performer. it's the only good thing i got from the 'lie' and has helped me in business, as well as getting some work acting in a few flicks. guess the first 18 years of my life wasn't a total waste of time.
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  NeonMadman

  I loved giving talks, it was writing them that was a bit of a pain in the neck. Mainly because I always put off writing them until either the night before, or the day of, after work and before the meeting. But I could bang out the average student talk in 45 minutes or so, so it wasn't such a great ordeal.

  I used to try to insert stuff to make my talks more interesting, I remember basing one around Don Quixote, though I can't remember what the talk was about or how I employed that particular reference.

  In one of the last talks I gave, I actually inserted the Bible gospel (as opposed to the WT "good news"). The talk was on not taking offense easily toward our brothers. I put matters into perspective by ending it like this:

  “If you're not sure what love really is, the next time that you open one of the Society's publications and see a picture of Jesus Christ nailed to a stake, blood dripping from his hands and pain contorting his face, just say to yourself, "That should be me on that stake. That is what my sins caused me to deserve. But Jesus wanted to take that punishment and that humiliation on my behalf." And why? Because of his love for you and me.”

  I said that in a KH, during a student talk. I have to tell you, as I walked back to my seat after saying those words, I saw people with tears running down their faces. That experience convinced me that, deep down, they know there is something seriously missing in their religion.
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  bittersweet

  Ha ha ha, I nearly fell off my seat reading Tinks story of her first talk.....too funny!

  Any way, for the most part I didn't mind giving talks.The thing I didn't like was the outline idea. How exactly is a sister supposed to use an outline and get all the right points across? I could never do it. I also hated the way you were timed, and they would use a bell or tap the arm rest to let you know you were out of time. I also hated the way they would give you certain topics, but not give them to the appropriate aged people. For example, when I was around 20, they gave me a talk with my 9 year old sister on "baptism by fire different than baptism by holy spirit ". Let me tell you it was a little difficult thinking of a reason I would be discussing this with a 3rd grader!

  My husband is still a witness, and he hates giving talks. They take him a long time to write ( because he is a perfectionist ), and he gets so nervous speaking in front of everyone ( maybe that was why he didn't like being an elder and stepped down ). The last few talks he has had, he missed those meetings!