Okay okay,
I couldn't stay away. I love you guys.
Abaddon's and LDH's recent posts hit close enough to home that I decided to post again.
I think the selected memory and split personalities go hand in hand.
The selected memory helps keep the cult personality happy and gleaming no matter what damage the suppression does to the real human or the real human's family and friends.
A couple of years ago I was talking about my childhood with my parents and they both acted stunned when I said I was still angry with them because they didn't want me to go to college (I gave up several scholarship offers, etc. etc. to become a pioneer and eventually go to Bethel).
They said, we never told you you couldn't go to college. I was flabbergasted. In discussions of this nature I have to be very careful since they are both in their late 70's and one excited heart beat away from death, so I backed down and just came home and fumed to my partner about it.
Mitch is fascinated by the JW world, of course he is also fascinated by Ripley's Believe it or not and Circus freak shows.
I remember going to a district assemby in 1979 or so in Jacksonville Florida and listening to one of the Belloit brothers give a talk specifically about not going to college. Well I knew the family and knew that both of his sons were in college at the time he was giving the talk and one of his nephews was a college professor. I told my parents this and they just kind of looked at me. My mother would always get to the point of tears back then whenever I mentioned anything about college.
Well, in 1981 I left home at the age of 23 and started college the next year. I graduated from Community College in 1984 and that started me on a successful career in banking. Now 20 years later I have gone back to school to study Math and Sociology, have a nice nest egg, a happy relationship with my life partner Mitch, many wonderful friends and am learning day by day to be a happier person, although it certainly takes work (just ask Mitch).
hugs to all of you wonderful wonderful fellow travellers out there
Joel
www.joelbear.com