by Steve Lowry 13 Replies latest jw friends
You?re no longer threatened or intimidated by words like, apostate or Armageddon. You?ve found the balance between hating the Watchtower Society and loving the JW.
I can say I've gotten this far. It's a start!
For right now, though, in order to keep a speaking relationship with my parents and husband, I must stay and pretend. It's an awful place to be; like in between worlds!
I'm right there with Doubtfully Yours on that one.
I?d like to clarify something here after reading the posts so far (which are all excellent BTW). I want to be very clear, in that by suggesting we want to "put the Watchtower behind us", I am by no means proposing that we should not acknowledge how it has changed and affected our lives. We need to learn from this experience(s) and carry the wisdom of that experience with us, always. I suppose to use an analogy, we should carry the scar to be sure, but we should also work to get past the pain the scare caused, until there is no more pain associated with the scare. Alas, this takes time and work, but it dose slowly come.
Finally, I think participating in a forum such as this is healthy and even cathartic. While I feel total peace concerning my JW and former JW experiences, I still feel the need to ?connect? with those, who like no others, have walked in my shoes. We need each other and we always will.
Steve
As long as we remember the root of the word catharsis, (kartharsis, to purge) and remember that if we do that for too long, we're either bulemic or diarrheic.
Hmmm...
You have put the Watchtower "behind" you when:
You can laugh at yourself (and others)
You don't think about them for days when you are on vacation
You can pull pranks on others and not feel guilty about being caught
You can go to any church you please
You don't worry about meeting them anywhere
You realize they are a very small byte of reality
You don't have to have the answers to everything
You can tip 20% for a good meal (Witnesses are SO damn cheap!)
You never have to wear a tie or dress again (maybe funerals)
You can truly be yourself
If you have no pre-WT self, you can design one. :-))
Randy
RandyTV
