Ordinarily I figure people are going to find their own way and that their life course is a matter of personal responsibility but occasionally I run into something that smacks me upside the head a little bit. Yesterday I heard something about a young man that I knew decades ago.He was from a prominent family in the Organization, the father was a successful businessman and you would see them frequently on the platform at Circuit Assemblies, etc. To be honest, I didn't particularly like the young man, I preferred the father, but the guy was bright and capable, we had mutual friends. He looked like someone with a future but very much an Organization guy who pioneered and all the usual approved stuff. The father eventually quite his business and ended up in the Circuit work, I suspect that's where most of the money went. Anyhow, yesterday I heard from one of the mutual friends that he was going to be visiting the guy. Turns out that there he is, in a not particularly nice part of the country, at 73 years old and working full time at Home Depot to get enough money to support himself, still a good little Witness. I keep thinking, 73 and killing himself at Home Depot, 73 and killing himself at Home Depot!. It gives me the chills! I guess at the back of my mind there's the "but for the Grace of God there go I" thought or something. What a waste, this guy could have been so much more. I didn't even like the guy but it's just wrong that he is where he is.
Disturbed
by Jazzbo 3 Replies latest jw experiences
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Jazzbo
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sir82
Yeah, we had a CO on his last, or next-to-last, circuit.
He had no business being a CO by then. He was old, and doddering, and virtually senile. His 30-years-younger wife drove him everywhere, made his appointments, for all I know dressed him in the mornings.
He repeated himself often, told the same stories every visit, his talks routinely ran 20 or 30 minutes overtime, don't get me started on how long the elders meetings lasted.
But he kept up the full CO routine - field service 4 mornings & afternoons per week, (back then) 2 evening meetings plus the elders meeting plus the pioneer meeting plus the Sunday meeting.
I distinctly remember thinking "this guy ought to be sitting in a rocking chair with a his grandkids on his lap and a glass of iced tea in his hand, enjoying the couple of years he has left....and instead here is shlepping around where his wife tells him to go, following the routine that is laid out for him, encouraging exactly no one and serving no purpose...."
He was a jazz musician in his youth before "getting the truth". You wonder what he might have done, if only....
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LongHairGal
JAZZBO:
I know it’s a sad story - often repeated in the Witness religion. As more JWs reach retirement age you will see more who have not prepared for retirement since the religion promised them Armageddon would have come by then!!!
I think of myself and what would have happened to me if I listened to Witness bullshit and pushing of poverty...I would not be retired if I had. The irony is if I were stupid enough to be stuck in the religion, I would have been the last one to be helped! ..What a sad joke that would have been.
I’m glad I was an unpopular and below-par Witness..Who cares who criticized me? I’m sure if I were there now they’d be running up to me with an envelope to contribute cash to people like the JW you described!
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hoser
This kind of thing also happens in “the world” more than we realize. Shirtsleeves to shirtsleeves in three generations