immersed in dickens and hawthorne, i cannot easily shake off the dusty antiquity of a bygone era.
however, its scant reality inhabits, not the present, but my sad hearkening back to the shadows of long ago.. hot blood pulses anew within fingers i thought stilled forever in a writer's graveyard of unwritten verse.
it is a reluctant awakening to a life much sadder than that endured by storybook friends who cannot see me, know me.. permit me, therefore, to reenter that precious twilight betwixt my present and the past, the faraway there of dearly departed poets.
Creativity ebbs and flows the trick seems to be to understand that the ebbs and flows are as normal as breathing in and out or the waves of the ocean.
During the ebbs I find it helpful to paint a study of someone elses work just to mark time while waiting for the next flow because I think it was Picasso(?) who said inspiration will come but she has to find you working.
i found it on facebook.
evidently, it’s from watchtower and shows baptisms and the brotherhood..
No. I have not heard of it.
The name itself is an oxymoron.
this article won’t change your mind - the facts on why facts alone can’t fight false beliefs.
brilliant article in the atlantic by julie beck discussing the phenomena of cognitive dissonance and how it affects religious and political beliefs.
it includes some interesting thoughts on how social media has magnified the problem.. spoiler - she is not optimistic about the possibility of successfully reasoning with members of religious cults.. the article also has a link to the 45 minute audio version.. link....
The old saying about "you can lead a horse to water..." still stands.
Horses only drink when thirsty and people will only do meaningful reseach that causes change when thirsty for facts and knowledge. What is the catalyst and when that person becomes "ready to drink" is personal and individual.
Sorry to mix metaphors but when I started researching it was like breathing unpolluted oxygen for the first time in years when only a year earlier I didn't, why? Because I didn't want to. I wasn't ready.
my sister texted me last night with an invitation to watch our dad give his first ever public talk.
i don't live particularly near to my family, but i'm not too far from them to make the journey, and i am on good terms with them, having never been baptised and so not disfellowshipped; they don't shun me and likely wouldn't even if i were disfellowshipped, it's not in their character.. i haven't been inside a kingdom hall since 2006, and i would like to keep it that way; i only intend to step inside one again in the event of a family wedding or funeral service.
i don't want to be rude to my sister, ignoring the text isn't an option, so i need a diplomatic way of declining her invitation.. i've considered saying that i'm busy, but this leaves things open for her to ask again in the future, and i'd rather she got the message that i'm not interested, without me having to say so in an explicit way.. any suggestions from those who have been in a similar situation?.
Is it a thing now to ask inactive people to someone's first talk because that's about the third time in as many months I've heard reports of it. Not just here either, someone who hasn't been to meetings for...like.. ever asked to witness the joy and miracle that is a first talk???
Wow it's not an inauguration...or is it... anyway sounds more like an attempt to woo you and for them to brag about how they got you there so you must really know deep down it the twooof!
there is more “ yellow journalism “ than ever before!
newscasters and writers that you thought were trustworthy often miss the mark.. do you generally accept the “news” as being honest?.
The news does not report events in a professional unbiased way anymore (did it ever tho?).
The news readers themselves sound like gossip columnists the tone of their voice that emotes a tisk tisk or a "what a terrible man" inflection at the end of every sentence, combined with the same stock footage and phrases played on a loop and the highly charged emotional words used to desribe events are all signals to let you how you are supposed to react.
First outrage then the sadness, and a fluff human interest piece to end with.
News now tells us what to think and feel and believe, and the adverts and promos for it run like an on going "reality" show. (Oh and shhh "reality" shows are not real shhh don't tell anyone.)
Oh I forgot to say - in my opinion.
ectopic pregnancies, when detected, are usually treated by surgically removing them.
i always understood that this procedure was ok for jehovah's witnesses.
but the subject came up during pioneer school.
Anybody taking the advice of a CO or the charlatans that employ him is an idiot.
BTW pioneer "school" isn't really a school and elders are not teachers or doctors.
there was this really lovely old geezer in a congregation i was in here in the uk.. he was an old bloke and very frit of giving talks and that.
when he was on the platform he'd be bleedin' scared...like an elephant near a bloody mouse.. so, 'ere's my question, right?
blimey.
I witnessed some serious talk/FS induced panic attacks over the years.
Seemed cruel to put that much pressure on old people, young people and introverts.
Apostate chic rocks?
Oh, I knows it!
this article won’t change your mind - the facts on why facts alone can’t fight false beliefs.
brilliant article in the atlantic by julie beck discussing the phenomena of cognitive dissonance and how it affects religious and political beliefs.
it includes some interesting thoughts on how social media has magnified the problem.. spoiler - she is not optimistic about the possibility of successfully reasoning with members of religious cults.. the article also has a link to the 45 minute audio version.. link....
I remember watching a documentary on the latest neuroscience a few years ago that whennit comes to making decisions facts are important but it's our emotions that will sway us. Particularly when we have facts that cancel each other out, but even if the face of a mountain of evidence we will often go with the response what we are emotionally attached to, it was really interesting.
That's why I think a social trauma will often be the catalyst for researching facts or vice versa but they work in tandem.
one argument against beards i've heard multiple times, both from individual jws and from the platform is roughly:.
'timothy got circumcised so as not to stumble others!
shouldn't you be thankful you don't have to do that?
Everytime I see the title of this thread my mind sees "breads and circumspection..." although I know what it actually says.
I suppose you could apply the alternative title interchangeably, particularly memorial breads and the not-annointed are a def no-no and we all know how they hate circumspection.
