How Sad

Ariell

I have a distant cousin, 15 and in a wheel chair. She's always saying how she can't wait until the new system comes when finally she'll be set free from her handicap and can run around with joyful glee. It breaks my heart knowing this is never gonna happen and makes me even more angrier. Does anyone here have a friend or family member whose depending on the new system to rid them of their ailment, mental, physicial, or otherwise.

Double Edge

I've never been a dub, so my beliefs are a little different. However, I do believe in life after death and in a Paradise earth after the second coming..... so, I can only imagine if you don't get the full benefits of this life because of an illness or an infirmity, it would only seem natural that if you have a firm belief in a better life where you are 'whole' you would look forward to it. I only hope people don't sell themselves short in this life with all that it has to offer even if you're not at your best. my 2 cents.

northern girl

Ariel:

I have a handicapped son and very much look forward to seeing him leap for joy in the new system. Maybe that hope gives your cousin something to be positive about. That is better than figuring this is 'all there is'.

northern girl.

SixofNine

On the one hand, I know from personal experience that JW's tend to use the "we have hope, cuz we know that this isn't all there is" line to promote the idea of paradise on earth, but also to infer that most people don't have a real hope. Now that I'm open to conversing honestly with anyone about their spiritual hope, I see just how wrong that is; most people have a very strong hope in something more after this life.

Still, I can only imagine that, as much as I loved the idea of perfection and a long, long life here on earth (ok, I admit it, eternal life), how much moreso must a person who is crippled in some way. I would imagine that a heavenly hope would pale in comparison, as they had been cheated out of living life to the fullest on this beautiful blue ball during their lifetime.

Stephen Hawkings of course made the best of it, but not everyones cerebral dance floor has room for two left feet.

It would really be ever so nice if the crappy religion just didn't exist, then we wouldn't need to have this discussion.

Ravyn

it was my experience as a JW that my thinking was totally black and white. why does not believing in a paradise earth mean belief that this present life and reality is all there is?

I am not even a xtian anymore and I definitely do not believe this is all there is with nothing else to hope for.

I have been in and out of wheelchairs my whole life, and am currently battling kidney involvment with SLE. I do not feel like this is the one that will do me in, but I know I will die of SLE and i know it will not be in my sleep at age 95....

I gave up 34 years to the false promise of a paradise earth. Then I realized something after I got over the initial pain of loss....I did not want to live forever on this earth in a paradise or not! In fact I don't want to live another lifetime in a human body at all! I am convinced that life, once it exists cannot not exist. But to limit myself to this physical body and this earth is just so 'small' to me now.

Ravyn

BLISSISIGNORANCE

Living in hope of something better is not a bad thing. For example people with cancer always hope that a cure will be found before it takes them. If it makes them happy and keeps them positive that's got to be a good thing.

I did have a JW friend in a wheelchair. We were very close and I know she loved me. I use the past tense because since I left the WTS she and I don't see eachother anymore.

The fact that she believes she will have a perfect body in the new system, I think is a good thing. It keeps her going day by day. She imagines herself being perfect and looks forward to that. What really makes me angry though is that while she hopes for that future world, real or not, she has a life now to live also. I know she would be missing me and would love to spend time with me. But because I know things about the WTS that have forced me to leave it, she has been told by the WTS that I am bad association and should avoid me. So to be able to have that dream come true in the paradise, she is sacraficing a friendship here and now. That is the sad thing! She is so afraid that she may miss her only chance at having a normal body. So she misses out on our friendship now. And I know that would not make her happy.

But I still hope she hangs onto that dream because her life would be very sad otherwise.

Bliss.

freein89

Got a funny one for ya,

There was a brother in our congregation who had been in the Hells Angels before becoming a witless. He had been shot in the head in a big shootout with the police. He was paralyzed on one side (no that's not the funny part). There was a sister who married him because she would one day have a perfect husband. The brother was not "all there" mentally as well as physically, but our faithful sister didn't marry that guy, she married the one that would one day be. He was on full disability, couldn't work, neither did she and she had some kids from a previous marriage, and I'm sure they are all living happily on disability, pioneering away, waiting for the perfection.

I take that back, its not a bit funny, its sad and pathetic.

Deb

willyloman

One hesitates to jump into this discussion in the middle of a cat fight but I do have a serious observation, if that's all right.

Having worked with and befriended a handicapped person confined to a wheel chair a few years ago, my whole paradigm has shifted on this issue. Time was I would have witnessed to this fellow and shared the good news that his suffering was nearly at an end. But in this ongoing encounter, I'm the one who learned the lesson. This guy is the most positive individual I've ever met. He has one of those battery powered chairs which was supplied by a grant from a public institution which has also provided him with access to all sorts of high tech equipment, financial aid, emotional support, and an education. He is on his way to being self supporting, and is an inspiration to all who know him. When you ask him about life in a wheelchair, he is quick to tell you how much better off he is now that when he used to use crutches to walk (painfully) and frequently wear out his shoes (because he had to drag his feet).

I am certainly not suggesting his life is perfect or without pain. But because of the institutions and organizations that exist to help and support disabled people (your tax dollars at work), he has more genuine hope and optimism than the wheel-chair bound person who may sit in the back of your local kingdom hall every week, you know, the one who makes everyone uncomfortable and is largely ignored by the congregants.

I hope Northern Girl will learn this lesson as soon as possible (it will save your life, sweetie): Stop talking about it, and do something about it!

northern girl

wilyolman:

You may wish you never got me started. But to be fair and not help identify myself or my son, I will keep this short.

My son is now a grown man who lives with (not suffers with) cerbral palsy. It is great that he has it mildly and to the regular onlooker, no one would see that he is dissabled. His brain is not affected and he is one of the most brilliant men I know.

I have never dwelt on his dissablity, only his ABILITIES! He is a university grad and supports himself in great fashion in the line of computer technology.

The last thing he would want is for me to draw any attention to him, but it is hard not to brag about this beautiful person!!!

northern girl.

Mystery

The sad part is - being a past JW and now being "worldly" - that people either 1) pity themselves and use a illness/handicap as an excuse or 2) they live – they accept it – do what they can about it – but they live. I have known both.

Another sadness are those that are not physically handicapped. It doesn’t always have to be physical. People wasting their lives. The ones that don’t believe in anything; Not in themselves, not family, not “God”, not anything. I know both – JW’s and non-JW’s.

The good thing is that there are people/volunteers that want to help the ones that want to help themselves. People who encourage and build the hopes of the “handicap” that wants help. Those w ho gives them confidence to live this life.

And this is where I see JW’s lacking – their hope is in “the new system” & preaching & meetings; not in volunteering/helping time to help those that want it. But then again there are alot of non-JW's that don't volunteer their time either. But on a precentage basis I would bet that non-JW's outnumber JW's 99.9% to .1%

just my $.02

How Sad

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