Posts by rick1199

honestly, do you think that jw's really like going to 3 or 4 day assemblies, especially when it's out of town, far away, and you have to take a motel room, and all the gas money and food money it takes, as well as having to sit down all day listening to endless talks...and that for 3 or 4 days in a row.. and often, they have to take a day off from work, to attend the friday meeting, so no pay for that day.. i think that the jw's are glad when it's finally over, not before.. .

rick1199

When I was young I hated assemblies, whole days of boring talks, sitting with my Mum who made me feel guitly for going to the loo. I remeber one time I tried to sit with some mate and she went ape.

However when I was about 16 I started to hang around with some slightly odler people who my Mum viewed as more spiritiual, which meant I could sit with them.

Of course they wheren't really more spiritual, they just knew how to play the game. I can remeber one year where 3 of us shared a hotel room and managed to consume a bottle of Rum and a bottle of Whisky. I can remeber throwing up out of the Window at about 2 in the morning and having a conversation with the sister in the next room who was doing the same.

About this time we started to leave at lunch to get lunch from a local pub, then forget to return in the afternoon.

I also bought my first porn while at an assembly (ok it was just a gay times, but would have been worse than having real porn). Also got the First Harry Potter book while there.

29

Underated Joys

by PaulJ in

what things are absolutely fantastic, but go unrecognised?

rubbing your eyes.

having a good scratch.

rick1199

Doing a large poo !!!!

LOL

50

Bi-Sexual

by misguided in

i guess my new-found freedom of personal expression is working its way down to my kids.. i came home from a crazy day at work, ate my dinner, was loading the dishwasher, when my 13-year-old son says, .

"mom, i have something to tell you - i'm bisexual...i've been that way for a year now.

i still can't help but have my old jw brain at work, thinking this is not okay - kind of like, i'm an apostate with a bisexual son...what will my family say?!

rick1199

You must be a great Mum, I would never have told MYSELF I was gay at that age, let alone my mother. I know of course, but was in serious denial.

59

Do you have one favorite place on earth?

by AK - Jeff in

jw
friends

i mean a specific location that you would go to time and again to just sit and look and enjoy?

or a favorite vacation destination?.

i love the cascade mountains as example.

rick1199

Cuddling up with my bloke on the Sofa !!

40

What Would YOU Do?

by GetBusyLiving in

jw
friends

this is an email forward i got from a friend.

interesting.

you make the choice don't look for a punch line.

rick1199

This is taken from snopes.com, it made me think and realise the road to hell is paved with good intentions:

What to make of an incitement to bestow upon the disabled to a pat on the head instead of granting them acceptance for who they are, even when that means accepting the limitations placed upon them by their infirmities? Has a disabled child who has been conditioned to believe he's good at baseball somehow been helped, or has he been set up for a greater hurt when he comes to realize he's been made the object of pity and an accomplishment he'd been praising himself for was just a sham?

Not everyone reacts well to having the rules of life changed on them in mid-game, so to speak. An experience from my sister's pre-school days might help illustrate this point.

As was my sister's wont, some mornings she would toddle after our brother when he headed off to school. She was always greeted warmly by the teacher and set down with crayons and paper to draw pictures (a ruse to keep her quiet) while the rest of the children went on with their lessons. When she proudly presented her drawings to the teacher, they never failed to earn gold stars, sometimes even rows of them! (According to our brother, she was never shy about demanding more stars. Loudly.) Her interruptions and demands were always immediately addressed, and the class learned to regard her as a lovable, if annoying, mascot who showed up every now and then but mercifully never stayed long. ("But always too long," our mortified brother would report.) When she tired of scribbling, singing, and cavorting, my dear sis would toddle back home, secure in the knowledge that this mysterious "school" thing was all sorts of fun, and it would be even more fun when she was grown up enough to be part of it officially.

That view changed on her very first day as a real student. Riding on the bus was fun, but nobody acted all that delighted to see her when she got to school. Worse, there were no gold stars for anything she did. When she piped up to sing a song, the teacher actually shushed her. She was told to stay in her seat instead of running around the room as she usually did. When she demanded crayons, she was told it was time to do lessons and that in future she had to put her hand up when she wanted something instead of just screaming it out. Confused and fed up, she tried to leave, but the teacher sat her back down! She was then told she couldn't leave, that she had to stay there for the whole day. Worse, she was told that if she didn't behave, she'd be taken to the principal. (She wasn't exactly sure what that was, but it sounded impressively ominous.)

That confused little girl grew up to be a young lady who dropped out of school in eighth grade. She never got over the idea that teachers lived to pick on her and that all these rules they came up with served no purpose other than to make her life miserable. Possibly a different beginning might have led to a different outcome: a brilliant, creative girl going on to complete high school and maybe even university. Maybe. But we'll never know because these other what-might-have-beens were killed with kindness before they even had their chance.

As amusing a story as my sister's experience may be, the pain she experienced was real. What that child went through shouldn't be visited upon another, especially upon one already burdened with limitations. Kindness is all well and good, but not when the expression of it sets up the recipient for greater harm later. The less abled don't require our pity -- they want acceptance, to be seen as viable and valuable members of the world. Lying down for them doesn't accomplish this; it just reinforces the belief they can't succeed on their own.

Can a disabled child hit a baseball as well as a perfectly-abled one? No. But can that same child learn to work within his disabilities to the point of achieving real accomplishments he can take honest pride in? Absolutely. And that beats all the pity-driven home runs in the world.

16

What is up with God requiring vindication?

by M.J. in

i've related before that i have started studying with a superbrother from the local congo.

in the knowledge book we came across this quote:

*** kl chap.

rick1199

That was one of my reasons for leaving the troof. Their explaination of why God allowed suffering was basically that he had a bruised ego.

26

DC IN Kansas City -120 years stressed

by stillajwexelder in

yet again because it was in the days text gen 6 vs 3 was discussed at the dc.

it -the talk -was started by stating that god puts a time limit on things and that in noahs day it was 120 years.

we are now 9w1 years into the time of the end since 1914. now 2034 was not directly mentioned but hell it was strongly implied and a gb member was present gerritt losch- so it looks as though statements like this have the wtbts approval.

rick1199

The problem with the 2034 date is it is a LONG way off. Where is the urgancy ?

By the time it comes I'll be 55, My Mum will be 85.

Why should I worry about being reinstated until I am 50 ?

My theory is they will have to 'Close the door' if they ever make this date public, i.e. stop doing a preaching work and start telling people they are damned and cant sign up any more. Otherwise where will the motivation for people to sign up come from if the end is 25 years away ?

26

DC IN Kansas City -120 years stressed

by stillajwexelder in

yet again because it was in the days text gen 6 vs 3 was discussed at the dc.

it -the talk -was started by stating that god puts a time limit on things and that in noahs day it was 120 years.

we are now 9w1 years into the time of the end since 1914. now 2034 was not directly mentioned but hell it was strongly implied and a gb member was present gerritt losch- so it looks as though statements like this have the wtbts approval.

rick1199

They will hint around the date for a few years, let the rank and file pick up on the idea, before they publish it.

That way the R&F will feel clever for working it out and will believe it as it has been there for a while.