Finished watching the ten episode Netflix MESSIAH.
Oh man - magnificent!
No matter what you disbelieve or believe you are depicted and represented by a character in this series.
Skeptic, True-believer, on the fence, on both sides of the fence, angry at the idea of blasphemy or open-minded : it's ALL there and it's for you.
Let's put it this way. A great novel makes you want to keep reading it and never end. A great mystery novel makes your race along to the end and hope for a surprise.
This series is a combination of both.
If you are simply curious and want to get it over with - let me save you the trouble. The real identity of this possible Messiah is way more complicated than a yes or no.
It's a series closely examining what it is that drives people toward and away from the very idea of God.
How demanding, how gullible, how beautiful, how ugly the entire idea of "faith" is and mostly...how contagious and explosive.
This is SEASON ONE (there's plenty of room for more if Netflix has the guts.)
Posts by Terry
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11NETFLIX: "Messiah" ... all I can say is "Wow!!"
by Terry innetflix : messiah.
remember how you felt watching close encounters of the 3rd kindfor the first time?that's what i'm feeling at the end of season 1 episode 2 ofmessiah.it's not what you think it's going to be.it's not jeffrey hunter in king of kings, or mel gibson's passion of the christ, or the left behind series, or temptation of the christ, or the greatest story ever told.. this isn't a hollywood version of anything.. folks, at the end of episode 2 i'm thinking i'm watching extraordinary storytelling fresh, original, superbly acted and -best of all: no bullshit.. don't read anything about it.
don't watch previews.
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Terry
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Draft: Transmission of the text
by Doug Mason ini am in the process of preparing a study that will include the impact of second temple judaism.
it will take me a few more months to complete.. early draft material on part of my study, dealing with aspects of the transmission of the text, is available at:.
https://jwstudies.com/transmission_of_the_text.pdf.
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Terry
Hey Doug - way to go, my friend!
If all your writings were put between covers and published, the final tome would be too heavy to lift. :)
Your work is never less than scrupulous, intelligently and thoughtfully wrought. I look forward to
poring over this.
Thank you! -
11
NETFLIX: "Messiah" ... all I can say is "Wow!!"
by Terry innetflix : messiah.
remember how you felt watching close encounters of the 3rd kindfor the first time?that's what i'm feeling at the end of season 1 episode 2 ofmessiah.it's not what you think it's going to be.it's not jeffrey hunter in king of kings, or mel gibson's passion of the christ, or the left behind series, or temptation of the christ, or the greatest story ever told.. this isn't a hollywood version of anything.. folks, at the end of episode 2 i'm thinking i'm watching extraordinary storytelling fresh, original, superbly acted and -best of all: no bullshit.. don't read anything about it.
don't watch previews.
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Terry
Netflix : MESSIAH
Remember how you felt watching Close Encounters of the 3rd Kind
for the first time?
That's what I'm feeling at the end of Season 1 Episode 2 of
MESSIAH.
It's not what you think it's going to be.
It's not Jeffrey Hunter in King of Kings, or Mel Gibson's Passion of the Christ, or the Left Behind series, or Temptation of the Christ, or The Greatest Story Ever Told.This isn't a Hollywood version of anything.
Folks, at the end of Episode 2 I'm thinking I'm watching extraordinary storytelling fresh, original, superbly acted and -
best of all: no bullshit.Don't read anything about it. Don't watch previews. Go into it cold.
I don't know what's up ahead but for now - this is the best thing I've seen of its kind.Give a couple of episodes a try.
"Who are you?"
"I am the Word."
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Time passes
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I'm on Episode 9 with 1 to go.
Each character is a living, breathing, flesh and blood person given time to develop. How rare this is!
I love how the slow unfolding of plot always leaves the viewer revising an opinion as to WHO this man is. Just when you think you know - there is more information.
That's why my Close Encounters of the Third Kind analogy is apt.
Exactly how would we react - each of us?
We all bring our point of view and expectations and doubts.
Is seeing the same as believing?
The Sunni Muslims see Messiah as either an Anti-Christ demonic persona - OR - the arrival of the actual promised figure bringing about the end.
Christians, Buddhists and Jews - how do they see and react?
What about the sick and dying?
Atheists, Agnostics?
One by one these human beings are confronted with a true test of their humanity, spirituality, and suspicious intelligence.
This is a GREAT MYSTERY to be solved.
Here I am with two episodes to go and I cannot guess what comes next. I have been wrong again and again.
Folks, give it look-see! -
22
What Do We Know for Certain?? Experts, Authorities, Scientists are often Dead WRONG
by Terry indo i know anything for certain?yes!when so-called "authority" predict the future - they are wrong.and yet - we always believe them.
examples:________.
2912 mayan calendar apocalypse1910 : halley's cometa worldwide panic ensued, stoked by the media and such newspaper headlines as “comet may kill all earth life, says scientist.”1831 the great disappointmentwilliam miller began preaching in 1831 that the end of the world as we know it would occur with the second coming of jesus christ in 1843. he attracted as many as 100,000 followers who believed that they would be carried off to heaven when the date arrived.
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Terry
NYTimes
HILLARY 91% chance of winningTuesday, October 18, 2016
TRUMP 9%
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22
What Do We Know for Certain?? Experts, Authorities, Scientists are often Dead WRONG
by Terry indo i know anything for certain?yes!when so-called "authority" predict the future - they are wrong.and yet - we always believe them.
examples:________.
2912 mayan calendar apocalypse1910 : halley's cometa worldwide panic ensued, stoked by the media and such newspaper headlines as “comet may kill all earth life, says scientist.”1831 the great disappointmentwilliam miller began preaching in 1831 that the end of the world as we know it would occur with the second coming of jesus christ in 1843. he attracted as many as 100,000 followers who believed that they would be carried off to heaven when the date arrived.
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Terry
Are you not conflating knowing things with certainty and predicting the future?
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Yep! -
22
What Do We Know for Certain?? Experts, Authorities, Scientists are often Dead WRONG
by Terry indo i know anything for certain?yes!when so-called "authority" predict the future - they are wrong.and yet - we always believe them.
examples:________.
2912 mayan calendar apocalypse1910 : halley's cometa worldwide panic ensued, stoked by the media and such newspaper headlines as “comet may kill all earth life, says scientist.”1831 the great disappointmentwilliam miller began preaching in 1831 that the end of the world as we know it would occur with the second coming of jesus christ in 1843. he attracted as many as 100,000 followers who believed that they would be carried off to heaven when the date arrived.
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Terry
Do I know anything for certain?
YES!
When so-called "authority" predict the future - THEY ARE WRONG.
And yet - we always believe them. Why?Examples:
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____2912 Mayan Calendar Apocalypse
1910 : Halley's Comet
A worldwide panic ensued, stoked by the media and such newspaper headlines as “Comet May Kill All Earth Life, Says Scientist.”
1831 THE GREAT DISAPPOINTMENT
William Miller began preaching in 1831 that the end of the world as we know it would occur with the second coming of Jesus Christ in 1843. He attracted as many as 100,000 followers who believed that they would be carried off to heaven when the date arrived. When the 1843 prediction failed to materialize, Miller recalculated and determined that the world would actually end in 1844.1914 / 1975 ARMAGEDDON : Jehovah's Witnesses.
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____"With over fifteen types of foreign cars already on sale here, the Japanese auto industry isn't likely to carve out a big share of the market for itself." -- Business Week, 1968.
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"To place a man in a multi-stage rocket and project him into the controlling gravitational field of the moon where the passengers can make scientific observations, perhaps land alive, and then return to earth - all that constitutes a wild dream worthy of Jules Verne. I am bold enough to say that such a man-made voyage will never occur regardless of all future advances." -- Lee DeForest, American radio pioneer and inventor of the vacuum tube, in 1926.
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"Heavier-than-air flying machines are impossible." -- Lord Kelvin, British mathematician and physicist, president of the British Royal Society, 1895.
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_____"Nuclear-powered vacuum cleaners will probably be a reality in 10 years." - Alex Lewyt, president of vacuum cleaner company Lewyt Corp., in the New York Times in 1955.
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"There is not the slightest indication that nuclear energy will ever be obtainable. It would mean that the atom would have to be shattered at will." -- Albert Einstein, 1932.
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_____"The cinema is little more than a fad. It's canned drama. What audiences really want to see is flesh and blood on the stage." -- Charlie Chaplin, actor, producer, director, and studio founder, 1916.
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"The Americans have need of the telephone, but we do not. We have plenty of messenger boys." -- Sir William Preece, Chief Engineer, British Post Office, 1878.
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______"[Television] won't be able to hold on to any market it captures after the first six months. People will soon get tired of staring at a plywood box every night." -- Darryl Zanuck, movie producer, 20th Century Fox, 1946.
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____"When the Paris Exhibition [of 1878] closes, electric light will close with it and no more will be heard of it." -- Oxford professor Erasmus Wilson.
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Y2K Computers were to cease functioning.
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ONLINE SHOPPING:
In 1966, Time magazine ran a bold prediction: “Remote shopping, while entirely feasible, will flop—because women like to get out of the house, like to handle merchandise, like to be able to change their minds.”
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1956, when Khrushchev was addressing Western ambassadors at the Polish embassy in Moscow, he told audiences that that Communism’s defeat of capitalism was inevitable.“History is on our side,” he said. “We will bury you.” Thirty-three years later, Communism collapsed, and two years after that the Soviet Union was dissolved.
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in 1964, National Review founder William F. Buckley described them as “so unbelievably horrible, so appallingly unmusical, so dogmatically insensitive to the magic of the art, that they qualify as crowned heads of anti-music.”
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Secretary of the Navy Frank Knox made a statement on Dec. 4, 1941, to assure everyone that the situation was well in hand. “Whatever happens,” he said, “the U.S. Navy is not going to be caught napping.” The attack on Pearl Harbor occurred three days later.
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In the 70's and 80's, ACID RAIN (we were told repeatedly) would destroy lakes and forests.
Eventually ... investigating scientists reported that they had “turned up no smoking gun; that the problem is far more complicated than it been thought; that other factors combine to harm trees; and that sorting out the cause-and-effect was difficult and in some cases impossible.”
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MORAL OF THE STORY?
Intellectual honesty doesn't double-down on error. -
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Did You Know Any "Genuine"" Old School Anointed?
by Number 6 ingrowing up in scotland in the 1970s in scotland the anointed were few and far between, but we had one old dude in our cong who claimed to be one of the anointed.
in the days when it was taken seriously.. i'd be curious how you viewed them.
thing is, he wasn't an elder, or even a ministerial servant, just a plain old publisher.. but he was revered like he had a hotline to jesus.. the other week i was talking to a friend of similar age to me but who hung around the wt a lot longer than i did, and he just commented "oh him... he was a doddery old fool who used to just sit and piss himself.
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Terry
The first time I encountered Mildred Pettifog she was a full time Pioneer knocking on stranger’s doors. She had been brought up as a Bible Student since the late 19th century.
In case that means nothing to you, think of it this way, the Civil War was fought 15 years before Mildred was born.
To gain a perspective, just think about the day airplanes flew into the World Trade Center in your own lifetime. That was 18 years before I’m writing this.By the time I was introduced to her (1960), this interesting little bundle of dynamite was already 80.
In today’s world, older women chase after eternal youth cosmetically in ways which hide or disguise the aging process. Hardly anyone actually knows what an old person would look like without this lavish attention to diet, exercise, Botox, facelifts, and youthful stylishness. However, back in 1960, when I first attended the Fort Worth Kingdom Hall as a guest, old ladies looked like old ladies.
For example . . .
Sister Pettifog sported a funny little purple hat riveted to the back of her head by a long hat pin with an improbably large pearl on its end about the size of a Robin’s egg. Her hair was mostly silver-white tinged with an incomprehensible blue tint.
What a face this lady had!
This elderly Sister flashed a crinkled smile and possessed large brown eyes like a puppy in a pet store window eager for adoption. Her skin was quite pale and her cheeks radiated a pinkish orange circle of something she said was “rooj” (rouge) a proper style back in the olden days. Once seen, Sister Pettifog was not soon forgotten!
Her dresses appeared to be handmade on her old Singer sewing machine using striped or polka dot patterns prudently selected at the local fabric shop. The steel rimmed bifocals framed her wide-set eyes perfectly and bestowed an impression of quiet intelligence and wisdom.
Sister Mildred always wore so much perfume you could tell if she was within a half mile of where you stood. Her favorite scent, Jungle Gardenia, had replaced her previous all-time passion, Chanel No. 5. I was told all this on the spot, of course, by the lady herself within 5 minutes of meeting her.
Although everybody who met Sister Mildred loved her instantly, the effect of that powerful perfume was devastating! It was like taking a large stone and tossing it in a small still pool of water--the splash and waves and ripples seemed to reach out in all directions tossing people’s nostrils hither and thither in pandemonium!
The most remarkable aspect of Mildred Pettifog’s persona was the fact she was one of the elite anointed members at our Kingdom Hall.
(At the time, it was special - very special. In recent years, the ruling Governing Body has taken all that special cachet for themselves alone.)What did it actually mean to be “anointed” by holy spirit as a JW?
Sister Pettifog had what was known as “a heavenly calling.”
Rank and file Jehovah’s Witnesses don’t set their hopes on going to heaven when they die.
No, not at all!
The vast majority aim for an “Earthly hope.” Life everlasting in a new Eden.
Scant few possess the interior tingle of a self-aware frisson. (A special self-awareness)
If you’ve never been a Jehovah’s Witness, you’ll be scratching your head about now wondering aloud just how cuckoo this denomination really is.Don’t worry about that right now, suffice it to say Mildred Pettifog was a rare individual viewed with almost “magical” specialness (although no JW would ever employ the word “magic.”)
Until fairly recently, the eight million of Jehovah’s Witnesses all over the world were under the impression the “anointed” got direct messages from the heavenly realm tipping them off about sacred secrets and advance prophetic divinations. These whisperings were better than stock market tips! (Although none has ever paid off).
Certainly this was the case when I was introduced.
The person introducing me spoke in a sudden and respectful hushed tone of awe in their voice as Mildred’s name was intoned. This created a funny feeling inside of me too. The psychology of awe is quite contagious! Sort of like, “Ya wanna meet Elvis?”
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In a conversation many, many years later, with Pettifog's grand-daughter at Starbucks, I learned something
remarkable and downright shocking.
____“The first time my great grandmother said one bad thing about the WatchTower organization I thought I was going to have a heart attack! It was like a bomb went off in my head! Granny Mildred is the one person most able to turn a Bible study into a Baptism. She had a way about her. She was not just the best; she was the best of the best. But, as you well know, the Truth, so-called, of the WatchTower organization has a way of changing infrequently with a strange anonymity to the process. Granny Mildred noticed it and used the word, “Sneaky.”
This shocked me. I didn’t believe my ears. I asked her to explain. When I heard what she had to say, I wished I hadn’t! She stood there in the kitchen helping me wash dishes like she always insisted on doing and at the same time started ticking off a long list of horrible things she claimed the Organization had done over the years to prove they were NOT the true religion! I kept telling her not to continue. I was panicking! I immediately thought of rushing her to the hospital. It was obvious to me--or so I thought--she had suffered a stroke and wasn’t responsible for her words!”
“It took her almost a year to deprogram me! We moved to Oklahoma and started going to a new Kingdom Hall. All the while, she kept going to all the meetings and out in Field Service, (door to door,) like nothing inside her had changed. I asked her how she could stand it. How could she pretend this was still “The Truth”?
“Granny smiled and explained she could do a whole lot more good ‘undercover’ than as an Apostate, because nobody was allowed to listen to an ex-member. But everybody would listen to her as one of the anointed remnant!”
At this point in her story, I was laughing out loud. This was amazing me! I begged for details. The granddaughter glanced at her watch. She had to go shortly but she said she’d tell me this one thing Granny always did when she was around young Witnesses.
Sister Mildred Pettifog would wait until she was in the car with a trapped audience who couldn’t flee. Then she’d start talking about her life as a Jehovah’s Witness. . . .
“I was born the year after the WatchTower was first published. My parents were among the first Bible Students to subscribe. Pastor Russell taught the Time of the End had begun in 1799 when Napoleon took the Pope hostage. You don’t know that, naturally. The organization finds that embarrassing. Pastor Russell taught Jesus returned in 1874 invisibly. You don’t know that either, of course. Pastor Russell used measurements on the Great Pyramid to predict 1914. The Pastor assured all of us, 1914 was Armageddon! Until the 1930’s, Pastor Russell’s successor, Judge Rutherford, continued the Pyramid nonsense! Guess what? We were all surprised when everything we had been taught--everything we had been teaching our friends and neighbors was sudden changed overnight--and no longer the Truth anymore!
By that I mean this.
Judge Rutherford finally changed everything by moving dates forward just like it was nothing--game pieces on a board! Lots of Brothers and Sisters fell away over the years because they were more loyal to the Bible than to the changes the WatchTower kept on springing! Can you imagine that? Just think how I felt as a young girl and then as a teenage woman to have to erase everything I was told was true and just pretend it never happened! But let me tell you--I was not faithful to the Bible--no sir! I stayed faithful to the Organization! I knew I was going to heaven no matter what the Governing Body decided was true! I didn’t graduate from High School or go to college. You know why? Because Armageddon was coming in 1914--what good would a worldly education do for me?
But it never happened!
Then, when I was 45 years old, Armageddon came again. By that I mean this--it did NOT. It was ‘supposed to’.
But, once again, we remained loyal to Jehovah’s Organization--never mind the Bible. The Bible says “No man knows the day and hour.” Well, that didn’t seem to faze Brother Fred Franz! Franz was like an Old Testament prophet. If he said it--it was considered true.
He came up with 1975 as the End of six-thousand years of human existence . That’s what he called it. That’s code for: Armageddon.
We all knew time was short by the time I was in my 90’s because we, the anointed, were dying off. We, the anointed Generation of 1914, had to still be alive to SEE the end. Our life was the Countdown Clock. Each year, more of us anointed would die and that proved Armageddon was getting closer and closer. I’m 98 years old. I was 95 the last time Armageddon didn’t come. You understand? That was 3 years ago we were taught the world was ending because of Earthquakes, famine, wars, and I suppose the heartbreak of psoriasis too--except IT DIDN’T HAPPEN. So many have gone away now. They lost faith in Jehovah’s Organization. But, not me! I’m faithful and loyal to the bitter end.”The granddaughter shook her head in wonderment at the words she related to me and added, “How she got away with that--I just don’t know. You could see the young kids’ faces. They didn’t know if she had lost her mind or what! If a young person were of college age, she went out of her way to talk to them. She’d get them off by themselves and say: I never got a proper education because the world was ending. It ended over and over and over. (With a wink.)
“I have friends who never married because of that, too. They have no kids or grandkids because we were assured we’d all be in heaven or Paradise. Many people now are old, bitter and unhealthy thinking they never lived a real life just waiting around for Armageddon. But, I went ahead and married and I had beautiful kids and grandkids. Do you suppose I’m sorry? Well, I am sorry I didn’t go to college. I could have earned enough money to give my children and grandchildren a start in life. But don’t listen to me. I’m just a grumpy old lady and my mind isn’t as clear as it used to be.”
Then Granny would walk away leaving those young JW’s with a dazzled expression of pure horror and puzzlement behind.
I asked if any Elders ever gave her a good stern talking to.
“Oh for heaven’s sakes! Are you serious? Granny was too slick for that!
She knew her scriptures and she’d start quoting them one after another until the busybody would shrug and give up. You see, she knew they had too much respect for her to get mean--like they do with most members who have loose tongues.”I asked what happened to Sister Pettifog.
“Granny died peacefully in her sleep 10 days before her hundredth birthday. She had written a long letter to be read to the congregation at her funeral. She mailed it to the Presiding Elder and a copy to WatchTower headquarters a few days before she died. Do I need to tell you, that letter disappeared and was never read or mentioned by anybody. I was asked if I knew anything I needed to tell--about Sister Pettifog’s state of mind. I told them she had only grown more loving, kind, cheerful and open hearted the older she got. I told them what she had said about loyalty to Jehovah’s Organization, too. They didn’t catch the telltale irony.”
Then, the granddaughter had to leave. I thanked her for stopping to talk to me.
“How long after your grandmother died did you start to fade?”
She turned to go and stopped reflectively.
“It was probably the day after her funeral.”
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3
Sometimes it helps if you write down your Nightmare!
by Terry inthe basement garage would never be the same.an eyeball rolled under the tool cart and stared sideways at nothing much at all.. nearby a final death twitch from a dying human ended what had been a death struggle.a weird creature mostly made of bug parts and human scraps stood and blinked.. its expression appeared to all the world to resemble a large, inebriated caterpillar.steadying itself awkwardly, it shambled toward the basement stairs on wobbly legs.. the monster’s victory meant this weird human replacement took on the new role of head of family: a family of devout jehovah’s witnesses!ah, world conquest was now assured!.
this uncanny thing coughed as its voice box simulated modulated words.it was practicing scripted dialogue of incredible importance to domination strategy:“wuh.
wuh.
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Terry
As most of my nightmares are :)
Thanks! -
3
Sometimes it helps if you write down your Nightmare!
by Terry inthe basement garage would never be the same.an eyeball rolled under the tool cart and stared sideways at nothing much at all.. nearby a final death twitch from a dying human ended what had been a death struggle.a weird creature mostly made of bug parts and human scraps stood and blinked.. its expression appeared to all the world to resemble a large, inebriated caterpillar.steadying itself awkwardly, it shambled toward the basement stairs on wobbly legs.. the monster’s victory meant this weird human replacement took on the new role of head of family: a family of devout jehovah’s witnesses!ah, world conquest was now assured!.
this uncanny thing coughed as its voice box simulated modulated words.it was practicing scripted dialogue of incredible importance to domination strategy:“wuh.
wuh.
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Terry
____
CATERPILLAR-GEDDONThe basement garage would never be the same.
An eyeball rolled under the tool cart and stared sideways at nothing much at all.Nearby a final death twitch from a dying human ended what had been a death struggle.
A weird creature mostly made of bug parts and human scraps stood and blinked.Its expression appeared to all the world to resemble a large, inebriated caterpillar.
Steadying itself awkwardly, it shambled toward the basement stairs on wobbly legs.The monster’s victory meant this weird human replacement took on the new role of Head of Family: a family of devout Jehovah’s Witnesses!
Ah, World Conquest was now assured!This uncanny thing coughed as its voice box simulated modulated words.
It was practicing scripted dialogue of incredible importance to domination strategy:
“Wuh. Wuh. Wa. Wat. Watch. Watchtower!”
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Above the garage, up the stairs - on the other side of the cellar door- human sounds mixed with television commercials, clinking dishes and the distant barking of neighborhood dogs.
The pupae on human legs completed its final transformation.
With snap and crackle of joints in place--the abomination reached for a pair of overalls hanging on a nearby peg. Next to that hung a calendar with the nude pinup smiling at the monster who paused curiously— then, shrugged and trudged upstairs
A sound of muffled voices on the floor overhead:
"Get ready for the meeting, Markie, your Dad should be home any minute now and he has to have the bathroom a good thirty minutes to himself."
"Mom, can I please stay home? I've got homework or I'll flunk algebra."
"No! Education isn't important. You missed WatchTower Study Sunday. It’s the same excuse. GET READY NOW!"
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The door to the basement swung wide with a hearty thump.
A not too human form lurched inside.
"Honey, I'm home", the familiar voice of their devoured father. Its faltering smile crawled up in a frozen grin.
"I didn't hear you drive up! How was work?"The bug-man staggered toward the "wife" and stiffly opened uncertain arms for an embrace, mumbling:
"Watch Tower!....Watchtower."
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The woman's expression quickly distorted and she pulled back reflexively. A scowl distorted her features.
"You haven't been drinking, have you? You promised!"
The bug-thing awkwardly ambled over to the couch, toppling heavily onto the floor instead.
"Watch Tower!....Watchtower?"
"Frank---did you hear me? Have you been drinking again?"
Her brow furrowed as color flushed into her cheeks. She removed her apron heading for the hall closet. She stepped in where a thorough search took place. Things clattered to the floor.Bug-man sensed trouble. "Drinking. Not again. I promise."
The tone of voice was flat.The defeated human’s devoured brain was absorbed by now. Bug-man’s thoughts were accessing neural pathways establishing its instinctive patterns working their way into semi-clarity.
"Evelyn, the alternate explanation is now occurring to me. The carbon monoxide leak in my car made me dizzy. Confused. Not drunk.”
His eyes rolled back like cherries in a slot machine.
It’s human mouth relaxed into a natural human smile.
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Evelyn backed out of the closet and abruptly slammed the door.
Turning toward her mock-husband she squinted, carefully appraising him with narrowed brows-- started to say something. She stopped and pursed her lips thoughtfully. Her body relaxed."Okay. Supper is almost ready, Frank."
Bug-man-head tilted like a dog listening to something beyond human earshot.
"What is with you, Frank?"
The woman placed her hands on her hips and stood pensively.
Anger was tightening her chest and she was barely managing to fight it."You say you haven't had a drink. Fine. Are you dizzy from car fumes? Then, you might need a doctor.”
"Doctor? Not needed! I'm for a bath and supper."
The hulking Frank figure waddled off toward the bedroom like a two-year-old with its diaper full.
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Evelyn exhaled slowly and miserably, picked up the telephone and punched in familiar numbers while keeping a wary eye on the bedroom door. It closed and opened and closed again comically--as though Frank had never seen or used a door before.Rinngggg. Ringggg. “Hello?”
"Brother Dave? It's me, Evelyn Carmichael . . . yes, thank you. Actually, no. Not doing well.
Frank and I are having a problem . . . again. Yes, that's right. Can we sit down with you and the brothers after the meeting tonight? Fine. Okay, I'll tell him. Bye."
___Minutes later, Frank-thing opened the bedroom door. He was dressed in a non-matching suit coat and fisherman waders. A knotted necktie dangled off to the side crookedly.
"Frank--I called Brother Dave----what in the world are you doing with that on? You think you’re funny?"
"I'm funny guy. You are laughing now to see me, okay?"Evelyn shook her head disgusted.
Her son Mark walked over. The boy stared hard at his “dad’s” behavior.
The 15-year old's thoughts clicked deep inside his mind and the "explanation" popped into view. It was not a happy answer.
The boy wiped his sleeve across his runny nose as he stared at his "father's" face puzzled.
.
Dad-thing raised eyebrows and spilled out his plan."Watch Tower delivery! Door to door. Caterpillar eggs! Soon, world will convert to our way of life!”
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The bedroom door opened again and a resolute Evelyn came marching out with two suitcases fully packed.
The boy immediately nodded refusing to look in the direction of the "father" again."Do I need to pack my suitcase, Mom?"
Frank-bug's expression switched from alert to alarm!
Neural connections and brain patterns transmitted signals of mission-threatening distress throughout the awkward body."Plan B! Come, wife and son--I have great surprise for both of you in the basement garage!"
"What---Frank? What Surprise?
"My surprise solves all problems! Special Gift! Come see--come now!”
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Warily, the mother and her boy watched as Frank-thing strutted over to the garage door and ceremoniously opened it."Big changes to come! Amazing transformation. Happiness for all!”
"All right, Frank. All right."Three figures shuffled solemnly down the steps into the basement as the door closed silent as a coffin lid.
_____An hour later the family car disgorged its three occupants in front of the Middledale Kingdom Hall of Jehovah's Witnesses.
Frank-thing, Evelyn-thing, and Markie-thing waddled up the steps clutching their Bible in one hand and a small container of centipede eggs in the other.Elder Dave leaned in toward the Evelyn creature and spoke reassuringly.
.
“Days are short. The End is near.”
The presiding Elder's eyes glimmered with alien delight.Centipede caviar all agreed was delicious.
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Meanwhile, at Watchtower headquarters, a special meeting of the Jehovah’s Witness Governing Body convened.
On the long conference table, leafy, tasty tidbits were nibbled, sampled, crunched and ingested.
Centipede caviar all agreed was delicious.Nobody on earth would suspect how the journey from the Pleiades to world conquest had been disguised as Divine communication laid out with such precision.
Humanity on planet earth could finally experience the well-publicized end of human existence.
Caterpillar-geddon.
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EPILOG
______Everything went as planned - until it didn’t.
Yes, caterpillar took over the planet. Capitalism ended along with Communism, religion,
War, and carbon dioxide pollution from human beings.You see, where the plan failed utterly only became apparent when the CROWS arrived.
It was a feast like none other.
Things were soon back to a new Normal.
Once again planet Earth was ruled by Murder.
Only this time - it was a murder of CROWS.
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65
KURD is the word - and the word is KURD
by Terry inkurd is the word - the word is kurd________who the heck are they?.
once upon a time, world war one ended and three people created a new place out of thin air called: iraq.
(gertrude bell, lawrence of arabia, winston churchill).this new country was divided up into 3 chunks:kurdsunnishia_____solemn promises made by colonel t.e.
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Terry
Simon:
Simon4 days ago
One huge catastrophe was the U.S. insistence on selling arms and even nuclear weapons to PUBLIC ENEMY NUMBER ONE: the State of Israel.
Terry. I'm not going to tolerate anti-semitism on this site, please refrain from posting such things.
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Simon - it is not MY opinion - I was speaking from the standpoint of the Arabs and surrounding Muslim countries.
My children are Jewish, for goodness sake!
