As I did say, my post was motivated by negative feeings that assailed me due to a slight overdose of "this is what the nasty WTS did to poor l'il ole me" type messages. I have those thoughts and feelings too, and I can appreciate that many people are in very bad shape, emotionally, spiritually, and otherwise, upon making their debut here, and upon leaving the organization. I didn't really mean to sound unsympathetic, unempathetic. However, I do feel that the best course for anyone is to get past the stage of grief and associated emotions as quickly as possible. I read in a self-help book once that we are biologically obliged to spend two days grieving over any loss, and after that period of time our grief is self-inflicted. While I believe that, and have actually experienced its truth more than once (and within the past 10 days, as a matter of fact), I too indulge in a measure of self-inflicted grief - but I am getting out of the habit, as far and as fast as possible.
Dear Overbeer, I don't know where you got the impression that I was being judgmental; at least, that was not my intent. However, it's easy to give or arrive at slightly (or greatly) skewed misimpressions when attempting to use mere printed words to effect communication. If al those tads of JW-negative info are important, they need to be collected and published. Perhaps that is my calling, perhaps not; I wish it were someone's calling. I have two journalist friends (both working on books, one already published once) with whom I want to have lengthy discussions about putting something together. It is not my calling to do it alone, but perhaps with a professional writer firend or two.
Notice I said I intend to spend most of my time and energies here in pursuits other than detaied analysis of the JWs' evils. Will probably give some attention to that area also, just not so much as to bring myself down. Ultimately, it's the old "taking personal responsibility for what we feed into our minds," and it's a personal issue, a personal probem. No one else here is doing "wrong" or needs to be scolded; I need to be more sensitive to my own inner barometer that says, "Enough reading about that for a while. Let's balance our info intake with something more uplifting."
Oh, and I don't mind being called Cru. (Chant, "Crooth-neh! Criith-neh! Crooth-neh!") It's what I asked for by choosing the name.
Cruithne/Enhtiurc
