This is a song - a very touching one, I might add - about how a man is diagnosed with a terminal illness and how it changes his life for the better. This is the song that Tim McGraw wrote for his dad, former MLB player Tug McGraw.
So why am I posting about this song on a discussion board about being Jehovah's Witnesses and leaving Jehovah's Witnesses? And furthermore, what would possess me to post this topic under the heading Beliefs, Doctrines & Practices?
Well, it's simple really. Don't JWs teach that Millions Now Living Will Never Die? Don't JWs applaud the self-sacrifice of members who set aside their own dreams and goals in the here and now, offering them the empty "promise" that they will have an eternity in Paradise on Earth to pursue those dreams and goals After Armageddon? Is it any wonder, then, that JWs often show the most contemptuous attitudes toward people who choose to follow their dreams instead of peddling the WTS's false prophecies that offers no compensation, no reward, no benefits package, no pension plan? They are living as though they will never die; as though they have all the time in the universe. They can afford to put off today what we have come to prize and value: an education, a vocation, finding a soulmate, raising a family, having real friends. I grew up in a group that at one time really believed we would not go to high school or get married or have children or see those children to go high school or get married or have children of their own. Yet, here we are.... and where the hell is Armageddon?
I know that I include myself among those here who feel that they were robbed of some of the best years of our lives and golden opportunities by the WTS. We started college later than our peers. Some of us got into marriages with people we shouldn't have because we were led to believe that their being In The Truthâ„¢ was enough to make it work and make it last. We thought all we had was just a little while longer and Jehovah would fix it all if it was broken. Some put off surgeries that would have made life more manageable. Others who are no longer living chose to die for lack of blood transfusions (and organ transplants) thinking it was a fast track to Living Forever In Paradise on Earthâ„¢. I can't even begin to tell you how angry it makes me that I spent 25 years of my life - a quarter of a century - in a CULT, having my thought processes altered to the point where I couldn't argue my way out of a brown paper bag because I was too busy going round in fatally flawed circles of Watchtower Logic. And now that I'm out, I treasure the life I have - the life I fought to have - the friends I have - even the fact that I have a job that I love and look forward to going in for every shift that I work. I love that I have a mortgage. I love that I have a student loan to pay off. I love that I make car payments every month. I love that I have a pension plan. I love that I have friends who love me for me, and not for the numbers on a Publisher Record Card. To me those are signs of living life, instead of stagnating body, mind and soul in a god-forsaken cult.
And now that you've read my rant for today, I'm going to share with you the lyrics that inspired it.