Terry

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  10

  The story of a renegade anointed

  by Terry in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  remarkable sister pettifog.

  this morning i arrived on my bicycle at the local starbucks early and took up a seat at the outdoor table in the fresh air.. that’s when it happened--a group of 3 older ladies at one of the other tables outside rose to leave and one of them walked over to my table and spoke directly to me.

  i was wearing earbuds at that moment and didn’t hear.

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  Terry

  Me too. Each time I reprint it- I edit it. One day it will be down to a readable length.
  Thank you.
• 
  10

  The story of a renegade anointed

  by Terry in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  remarkable sister pettifog.

  this morning i arrived on my bicycle at the local starbucks early and took up a seat at the outdoor table in the fresh air.. that’s when it happened--a group of 3 older ladies at one of the other tables outside rose to leave and one of them walked over to my table and spoke directly to me.

  i was wearing earbuds at that moment and didn’t hear.

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• 

  Terry

  Remarkable Sister Pettifog

  ________

  This morning I arrived on my bicycle at the local Starbucks early and took up a seat at the outdoor table in the fresh air.

  That’s when it happened--a group of 3 older ladies at one of the other tables outside rose to leave and one of them walked over to my table and spoke directly to me.
  I was wearing earbuds at that moment and didn’t hear. I popped them out and asked her to repeat herself.

  “That’s a beautiful bicycle you have there. What a great way to stay healthy!”

  I thanked her and idly chatted about this and that.

  As I spoke, I could see she was scrutinizing my face like a private investigator rummaging for clues. The analytical part of my brain went on alert at that instant. What was she doing?

  “I think I know you. It’s been a long, long time ago when last I saw you. I don’t expect you’d remember me but I remember you because my great grandmother use to tell me how much you reminded her of her favorite movie star, Randolph Scott.”

  Straightaway, I put 2+2 together! I knew exactly who she was talking about--after all, nobody else in the whole world had ever said I looked like Randolph Scott but one lady!

  “You’re talking about **Mildred Pettifog, aren’t you?”

  This lady about fell over when I pulled that rabbit out of the hat!

  “How in the world--I mean--that’s impossible you should say that. How--how do you know that?”

  I explained the instant connection and invited her to sit. I could see she wanted to talk.

  She was probably in her 50s but who can really tell, right? She was jovial, keen-eyed, and pleasant. All the while I was waiting for the other shoe to drop.

  We swapped gossipy tidbits for a while about the Knorr Era Kingdom Hall folks
  until she was just about ready to leave. Then she stopped and gazed out into the past and dredged up a memory to relate to me.
  After I finished listening - well - I sort of sat dumb with my jaw hanging down.
  This pleasant lady told me a little story about Sister **Pettifog, her great grandmother.

  ___________________Backstory

  The first time I encountered Mildred Pettifog she was a full-time Pioneer knocking on strangers’ doors. (“Pioneer” means engaged in a door-to-door neighborhood ministry to achieve one hundred plus hours each month as a required ministerial quota.)

  
  Yes, she was one of Jehovah’s Witnesses and 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.

  By the time I was introduced to her (1960), Sister Pettifog was already 80.

  Way back in 1960, when I first attended a Kingdom Hall as a guest, old ladies looked like old ladies. No Botox, facelifts, etc. White hair was quite acceptable.

  Sister Pettifog sported a little purple hat pinned to the back of her head by a long hatpin with an improbably large pearl on its end about the size of a robin’s egg. Her hair was mostly silver-white tinged with a faint blue tint.

  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 powder blush but were a proper style back in the olden days. Once seen, Sister Pettifog was not soon forgotten!

  Her dress appeared to be colorfully modest, hand-made on an old Singer sewing machine with prudently selected patterns from the local fabric shop. The steel-rimmed bifocals framed her wide-set eyes perfectly and bestowed an impression of quiet intelligence and wisdom.

  Although everybody who met Sister Mildred loved her instantly, the effect of her Jungle Gardenia perfume was devastating- 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 anointed members at our Kingdom Hall.
  (At the time, it was special - very special...and mysterious.)

  What did it actually mean to be “anointed”? I wanted to know.

  Sister Pettifog had what was “a heavenly calling.”

  
  The vast majority of JW’s aim for an “Earthly hope.” Life everlasting in a new Eden.
  Scant few possess the interior tingle of 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 might be.

  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 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 advanced prophetic divination. These whisperings were better than stock market tips! (Although none has ever paid off).

  Certainly, this was the case when I was introduced on that first visit.
  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?”

  ****

  Now you may be wondering why I’m telling you all this about one little old lady, right? Fair enough. Just hang in there - you’ll soon discover why.

  Let’s begin . . .

  ________________ORIGIN STORY

  Before I met my future best friend Johnny, he had gone through a sudden ‘conversion experience’ after a conversation with Mildred Pettifog.
  He was only 9 years old at that time.

  Sister Pettifog knocked on the door and Johnny’s mother Jenny answered.
  
  Much to his surprise and horror, Jenny started cussing out the old lady and slammed the door in her face after only a few moments of discussion of the Bible!

  Johnny felt his world crash about him.
  After all, Jenny was NOT that kind of person. She was a charming, affable, and genuinely kind woman. Why had she been so vulgar and rude to the old lady?

  (Johnny told me the whole story many decades afterward.) Now I tell you.

  Johnny’s parents moved to Fort Worth from South Texas and dressed up special to go to the nearby Baptist Church for the first time taking all their kids with them (Johnny, Judy, JoAnn, Vicki).
  Upon arrival, the Pastor of the all-white church pulled them aside and not-too-politely instructed them to go to the “Mexican” Baptist Church three miles distant.
  Why?
  “You folks will feel more comfortable there.”

  Johnny’s father was from a Spanish family and his skin was deep-hued in an era in which race relations in the South were testy, judgmental, and volatile.

  Following this stinging and hurtful embarrassing rejection, Jenny and Steve disavowed church in a fit of righteous indignation, nursing their tender feelings self-isolated from the fellowship of any sort.

  The arrival of Sister Pettifog at the door that day was ill-timed at the “worst possible” moment for raw emotions triggering an unfortunate outburst from Jenny Santa Cruz.

  9-year-old Johnny ran after the old lady and apologized to her for his mother’s tantrum and insults.
  Sister Pettifog was jovial and forgiving.
  She invited Johnny to sit with her once a week for a private Bible study. He leaped at the offer being of an especially open and intelligent frame of mind given to a natural curiosity about the Divine.
  So powerful was the teaching and personality of Sister Pettifog, in no time at all she was studying with the rest of Johnny’s family, overcoming all objections, answering questions, and amazing them with her uncanny grasp of all the spiritual secrets of the Almighty Jehovah!

  The upshot of this incident will now make more sense to you with this background in place. You see, Johnny became my best friend some 3 years after that incident and he began bombarding me with religious conversation from day one.
  A kind of apostle of Pettifoggery.
  
  When I attended the local Kingdom Hall with him my first time, it was fated to be my first meeting with Johnny’s favorite person in all the world Sister Pettifog!
  It was Johnny’s tone of hushed awe which made my spine tingle when Sister Pettifog took my hand and told me, “You remind me of my favorite movie actor, Randolph Scott!”

  _____________BACK TO OUR STORY

  We’ve now squared the circle on all the background, haven’t we?
  Yes, I think so.
  I became a Jehovah’s Witness 3 years later in 1963.
  
  Four years later, I was sentenced to possibly 6 years in Federal Prison on a religious belief during the Vietnam War.
  Johnny had one eye and flat feet - no prison required.
  He married in 1967, the same year I went to Seagoville Federal prison.
  I was paroled in 1969 and 5 months later - I married Johnny’s sister, JoAnn.

  At this point, I’ll try my best to give you the story as told to me by the great-granddaughter of Mildred Pettifog.

  ________PETTIFOG goes rogue?
  
  

  “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.
  Truth as published by the WatchTower organization had a way of suddenly flipping the script and 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 “sneaky” things she claimed the Organization had done over the years to prove they were “making stuff up.”
  
  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!”

  “A year passed with these embarrassing conversations (private as they were). 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 pretend what she was learning and teaching was still “The Truth”?

  “Granny smiled and explained that her ‘anointing’ 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 begging for details.
  Granddaughter glanced at her watch. She had to go shortly but she said she’d tell me this one thing Granny did when she was around young Witnesses. The teens.

  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. . . .

  ____PETTIFOGG’S HISTORY from her own testimony

  "I stay faithful to the Organization!
  I knew I was going to heaven no matter what the Governing Body decided was true!
  Right or wrong. Where else would I go?
  I didn’t graduate from High School or go to college when I was young because Armageddon was coming in 1914--what good would a worldly education do me?
  Pastor Russell said what Jehovah told him and it didn’t happen the way he told it.
  Was it a mistake? A human opinion? Wrong is wrong. But we believed it and we were surprised, sad, and many of our Friends declared it a ‘false prophecy’ and left the Organization. Not me."
  
  "Pastor Russell took a wait-and-see attitude but he died and Brother Rutherford told us 1925 was the year it would all go down. Another mistake, or human opinion, but Jehovah’s anointed remained faithful to the organization.
  The Bible says “No man knows the day and hour.” That didn’t stop Brother Franz and Brother Knorr from 1975, however.
  It was exactly the same thing taught in 1874, moved forward a hundred years.
  Yes, 1874, 1914, 1925, 1975. We all went along preaching it as ‘Truth’ even though it was men’s opinions, wrong guesses, and the anointed slave assuring us we are a spirit-directed organization. Who am I to say they are wrong - until the date comes and goes? I remained faithful to the Organization."
  
  "I am in my 90’s knowing we, the anointed, were dying off.
  We are the anointed Generation of 1914 and have to still be alive to SEE the end.
  Our lives were used as the Countdown Clock. We are part of the MILLIONS NOW LIVING who will NEVER DIE. Do you understand? Why would we leave an organization that gives us this heavenly assurance?"
  
  "Each year, more of us anointed die and it assures and proves Armageddon is getting closer and closer. What fool would risk leaving with such assurance?
  Now I’m 98 years old. I was 95 the last time Armageddon didn’t come. Do you understand? It is now 1977. 3 years ago we were taught the world was ending because of Earthquakes, famine, and wars, and IT DIDN’T HAPPEN.
  Many have gone away now. They lost faith in Jehovah’s Organization.
  But, not me! I’m faithful and loyal to the bitter end.”

  ________

  Mildred Pettifog’s granddaughter shook her head in wonderment at the words she related 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.”

  “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.
  Not me. I went ahead and married and I had beautiful kids and grandkids. I’m anointed too - and Jehovah’s spirit allowed me the freedom to have a life.
  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. You better do exactly what the Organization tells you to do.”

  Then Granny would walk away leaving those young JW’s with a dazzled expression of pure horror and puzzlement behind.

  _________

  I asked the granddaughter 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--as 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 seem to catch the irony.”

  It was time for the granddaughter to leave. I thanked her for stopping to talk to me.
  As an afterthought, I asked one more question.
  
  “Did any of that weaken your faith?”
  
  She smiled as she climbed into her car and told me her answer:
  “The day after her funeral I walked away and haven’t been back to a meeting since then. Nice talking to you, Randolph.”
  Away she drove.

  _________________AFTER THOUGHTS

  Pettifog was directly responsible for my best friend Johnny’s captivation by Jehovah’s Witnesses. Johnny, in turn, was responsible for my interest leading to my eventual imprisonment later on during the Vietnam War.
  I was a Pioneer who held many Bible studies leading to baptisms and new members.

  I’d love to know how many young people she spoke to whose minds were changed toward and away - inspired or awakened by her cunning testimony?

  She truly was a Remarkable Sister Pettifog!

  _________________

  Terry Walstrom

  **Note: I have changed the name to avoid tampering with people’s memory of her.
  Removing and substituting the name Pettifog is a writer’s gimmick. You see, in the mid-16th Century, a lawyer who made endless objections was known as a Pettifog.
  If you think you know the identity but aren’t sure - I’ll give a hint. Her nickname was “Boots.” She was in the Poly Congregation in Ft. Worth, Texas

  _________________
  
  
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  23

  2022-April-Elder Manual and Addendum--12 Files!

  by Atlantis in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  several files in the folder including:.

  2022-april-elders manual.. 2022 april addendum.

  working together safely12 files total.

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  Terry

  This is like a family reunion :)
  
  It's wonderful to feel a sense of continuity between generations. (I didn't use the word "overlap"). We'll just keep on keeping on until the last Trumpet. (I didn't use the word "Trump"). As always, the solidarity of the Ex-JW community is heartening. (I didn't mention "hardening" of arteries).
  We long-timers here are from the Nathan Knorr Era. I started studying in my first year of Jr. High School in 1960. I was baptized in '63 and served in prison from '67 to '69.
  I was DF'd in '79 and discovered the ExJW community online in 2006.
  Wow-what a journey; with no end in sight. Wouldn't it be fantastic to live to see the decline AND FALL of the Watchtower sociopathic overlords?
  
  
• 
  7

  My personal favorite Jesus story (in woodgrain)

  by Terry in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  my favorite jesus storya couple of years past retirement, i moved into a "retirement community" .

  old folks home) which was convenient like a hotel.. once a week there would be a coffee and doughnuts meet and greet get-together so you would know who your neighbors were.. well .

  .. i attended a few and missed a few.

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  Terry

  Hadn't thought of it like that. Did Jesus wear horn-rimmed glasses?
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  2

  Rod Serling might well say: Soup Herb

  by Terry in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  rod serling might well say, "witness a man for whom success will never arrive even as his bright dreams slowly die.".

  (culver city, california 1980).

  soup herb.

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  Terry

  On the other hand, there was this CARPET STORE in the very Jewish FAIRFAX district
  of Los Angeles that (for the entire 10 years I lived in California) went OUT OF BUSINESS every day for a decade (and may well still remain)!
  
  Before I returned to Texas in '83 I entered the Carpet store and chatted with - I'm supposing - the owner who was NOT Jewish but probably Iranian.
  I laughed as I asked, "How is it not breaking the law to claim to be going out of business for ten years?"
  How the proprietor answered taught me a life lesson.
  He gave a dismissive grunt and downturned the corners of his mouth with disdain.
  "Ha! Everybody always asks me that."
  I raised my eyebrows and asked, "AND what's the answer?"
  A throwaway shrug followed by, "I tell you what I tell everybody. Learn to read a business sign C-A-R-E-F-U-L-L-Y.
  And so I did!
  THE GIANT BANNER outside his store...once I got up close and actually read each word c-a-r-e-f-u-l-l-y said this:
  GOING OUT for BUSINESS!
  
  It was my own brain that substituted OF in place of "for"!!
  
  The proprietor shouted at me:
  "People only see what serves their own greedy interests!"
  
  Wow! We interpret things to our own advantage!
  The customer goes into the carpet store thinking they will snag a great price because the business is about to go under with a heavy inventory.
  GREED!
  
  So, that's the opposite snippet of a story about businessmen in L.A.
  
  Take your pick.
  
  
  
  
• 
  7

  My personal favorite Jesus story (in woodgrain)

  by Terry in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  my favorite jesus storya couple of years past retirement, i moved into a "retirement community" .

  old folks home) which was convenient like a hotel.. once a week there would be a coffee and doughnuts meet and greet get-together so you would know who your neighbors were.. well .

  .. i attended a few and missed a few.

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  Terry

  I suspected that for many years (the late 50s and 60s) the artist at Bethel who
  portrayed Jesus used STEVE REEVES (Hercules) as his model.
  
  

  
  Mostly, I'd reckon, because the WT leadership didn't think the classic flouncy Jesus in a diaphanous nightgown was manly enough!
• 
  7

  My personal favorite Jesus story (in woodgrain)

  by Terry in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  my favorite jesus storya couple of years past retirement, i moved into a "retirement community" .

  old folks home) which was convenient like a hotel.. once a week there would be a coffee and doughnuts meet and greet get-together so you would know who your neighbors were.. well .

  .. i attended a few and missed a few.

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  Terry

  MY FAVORITE JESUS STORY
  
  
  A couple of years past retirement, I moved into a "retirement community"

  (i.e. Old Folks Home) which was convenient like a hotel.

  Once a week there would be a coffee and doughnuts Meet and Greet get-together so you would know who your neighbors were.

  Well . . .

  I attended a few and missed a few. Small talk at these things was microscopic.

  After an absence of two months, I re-entered the community room where all the blue-haired folks gathered. The conversation seemed to be about a fellow who had passed away.

  One white-haired dearie said to me, "I thought YOU were the one who died."

  I assured her I was not.

  ____

  Only two (count em') TWO guys were still alive and I was (presumably) one of them.

  Thankfully, another fellow moved in and news spread like wildfire he had retired with plenty of money!

  The ladies just adored and befriended him. In fact, they liked him so much they shared their woes with him and he became the local Savings and Loan, only without the "Savings" part.

  ___

  Well, one Sunday at the coffee thingy, I say hello to the new guy and we start chatting. Suddenly, spoke up all excitedly...

  "Did you see Henrietta's clock?"

  Well, I thought that sounded like a straight line if ever I had heard one.

  "You did say: CLOCK, right?"

  "What'd you think I said?"

  I told him I didn't think a woman with a clock was newsworthy enough to warrant his enthusiasm, so I . . . well, never mind!

  (His name was Stan.)

  Stan didn't miss a beat.

  "Oh come one, come on--you gotta go with me--Henrietta loves to show people her clock. You've never seen anything like it."

  Other folks, (always eavesdropping) jumped in all at once.

  "Oh, that's right! YOU CAN SEE THE FACE OF JESUS in the woodgrain of her clock!"

  I chuckled.

  But, the serious expressions of the others told me not to scoff.

  There were more of them than of me, so . . .

  Let's cut to the chase.

  _______________________

  I end up, along with all the others, marching down a few halls like vigilantes until I found myself standing in Henrietta's room.

  We formed a semi-circle around a sort of smallish version of a Grandfather's clock.
  A cheaply made clock with awful fake woodgrain.

  We probably looked a bit like those ape-like hominids at the beginning of Kubrick's 2001 A Space Odyssey as they beheld the MONOLITH.

  You know that 2001 Obelisk, right?

  ***

  One by one the lady hominids lurched forward with trembling fingers and touched the sacred "face" of phantom woodgrain Jesus. There was plenty of "oohing and ahhing" and the others

  were purring like shaggy kittens with blue permed fur.

  "You see?" One of them urged.

  "You do SEE HIM...right?" Another one scowled.

  "Do YOU SEE our Saviour?" It was Henrietta herself this time.

  Each one of them was cocking their head this way and that like a puppy in a pet shop window.

  "Isn't it amazing?"

  Henrietta's face glowed like a Renaissance oil painting.

  I stared.

  I blinked. I squinted.

  I got closer, then farther away.

  It was sort of like trying to read an Optician's Eye Chart in Swahili.

  My internal dialogue went like this.

  "I'm screwed. If I don't see it, I'll be skinned and tossed into the furnace as a witch."

  _______________

  A few minutes passed.
  The ancient cheerleader's tempers were getting short with me.
  Some were making excuses for me, while others were suggesting I was atheist or Muslim. I'm not kidding!

  "Aren't you a BELIEVER?"

  Henrietta narrowed her suspicious eyes at me while traces of a snarl curled the side of her lip.

  _____________________

  There have been many times in my life when I have been tested as to faith, belief, and willingness to take a stand. I have always thought you have to swim against the tide and say what's really in your heart and your mind. Take the consequences as they come, that's what counts.

  So, I took a deep breath and faced the menacing lynch mob squarely.

  _____________

  "Yes, ma'am--I think I'm starting to see something...it's shaping up... I'm almost there....oh..Oh..OHHHHH Wow!"

  ("Waitress, I'll have what THEY'RE having, please!")

  In other words: I FAKED IT.

  Don't judge me too harshly. I had to see these people every day. It was time for me to learn to go along to get along. Screw integrity. I've been there and done that. I gave at the office.

  _____________

  Smiles like campfires in the night glowed among the crinkled faces.
  I was now accepted as ONE OF THEM.

  (At last, he loved Big Brother.)

  One by one the congregants drifted out into the hallway all aglow and deeply, spiritually satisfied.

  Now alone, it was just Stan and Terry remaining, glancing back and forth at each other in a weird sort of way.

  Henrietta had sauntered off to go back to the coffee and doughnut soiree' in the recreation room.

  _______

  Stan heaved a weary sigh and turned to me.

  His face was turned down in disappointment.

  "I was hoping you couldn't."

  "Couldn't what?"

  "Couldn't see the Jesus face in the wood grain."

  "I confess: I stood there in front of all those old women and lied my ass off!"

  "Really?" Stan replied with eager delight.

  "Not unless Jesus Christ looked like a knothole," I replied.

  Stan gave me one of those inscrutable looks for a second and shrugged his shoulders.

  "I wish you had SAID something. They browbeat me for a solid hour yesterday until I gave in!"

  "Ha! Better you than me, my fine-feathered friend."
  I exclaimed in my best Daffy Duck impersonation.

  _____

  We both stood there with pursed lips contemplating the injustice in the Universe.

  So. THIS is what it felt like to be a Sell-Out! Well, it didn't feel too bad at all.
  At least I was in good company with old Stan.

  Besides, maybe, just maybe this is partly how some of Christianity spread in the first place!

  
  

  
• 
  2

  Rod Serling might well say: Soup Herb

  by Terry in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  rod serling might well say, "witness a man for whom success will never arrive even as his bright dreams slowly die.".

  (culver city, california 1980).

  soup herb.

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• 

  Terry

  
  Rod Serling might well say, "Witness a man for whom success will never arrive even as his bright dreams slowly die."

  (Culver City, California 1980)

  SOUP HERB

  The tiny diner was empty - and it was a minute past noon!
  I walked into the little shop chuckling to myself,

  That name! SOUP HERB - it struck me as brilliant and hilarious.

  A “superb” lunch was right up my alley!

  Inside the diner, in the corner at a small table a man in a chef's costume sat “smoking” an unlit cigar, flipping through a daily Racing Form.

  "Ah, good day to you, Sir" His mustache drooped as his smile beamed.

  "You're my first customer! You eat for Free today - but you must promise to tell all your friends how wonderful we are - (he added with a wink) even if it is lousy- which it never is!"

  ____

  AN HOUR LATER

  By the time I walked out of SOUP HERB...

  I had - as Rod Serling might well say, "Witness a man for whom success will never arrive even as his bright dreams slowly die."

  Herbert (last name now unremembered ...too many consonants for my brain) had not only served me hot soup with fresh rolls and brisk iced tea, he had dumped a platter filled with autobiographical remembrances on my soul as well.

  In short, he had come from Serbia - escaping from Kosovar Albanians hellbent on wiping out every living thing from his village. Parents: dead. Friends: dead.

  I confessed I knew nothing about Serbs or Albanians.

  He was unsurprised.

  "Nobody knows - or cares." Then he added, "Why should they?"

  He traveled West, joining a crew of sailors heading to America and landed in New York.

  He discovered a job in a delicatessen as a short order cook.

  Eventually he moved on, learning his trade as a Chef.

  He'd saved all his money for the dream: his own business.

  He was Catholic. Through his church he made contacts and found a landlord who felt sorry for him and granted one month's free rent. California was paradise - this would be an incredible new life - new beginning for him.

  ___

  The shop I was sitting in was cobbled together with his own two hands from scratch.

  "How'd you come up with the name SOUP HERB", I finally asked - expecting a delicious snippet of genius - a clever story or a shrug of modesty.

  "It's easy to make, it's delicious, there is a good profit margin - and - well, my name is Herb."

  I thought he was testing me. For a minute, anyway.

  "Are you trying to tell me "SUPERB" never entered your mind?"

  He stared at me ...

  "No - what is that - a word?"

  ____

  TWO WEEKS LATER

  I stopped by again and walked in to find the Chef sitting in the same spot in the corner - no customers around - but no smile this time.

  He slowly revealed to me how he had been robbed and the money he was saving for the new month's rent was gone.

  Herb astonished me when he revealed:

  "I apologized to the little man with the gun. Yes, I did. I told him I knew how desperate life can make you --and how you'll do anything - no matter how awful - just to escape."

  _____

  A MONTH LATER

  The sign was down and Herb had vanished from the chalk board of dreams.

  Chalk dust on fate's eraser.

  This isn't a happy story but it's a true one.

  Funny thing about it -I can't get rid of it from my memory.

  Herb haunts me in quiet moments.

  He is a man with big dreams, a tragic past, an iron will to survive and when his chance at success comes - a little man with a pistol snatching it away ...

  BUT HE APOLOGIZES to the thief!

  Why?

  I think it is called "empathy".

  So...

  A LIFETIME LATER

  Today, every time I see the word "superb" I stop what I'm doing and feel my heart forming the ghost of a prayer for him...and I think - "No, it's SOUP HERB!"

  Life is indifferent to our dreams. And indifferent to our Chef and his tiny diner.
  I have a problem letting go of my memory of him. But I’m a writer and I have a way of exorcising such matters.

  Herb the Serb, now that you’ve met him…

  Now he's your problem too.

  
  
  
  __________
  T.E.Walstrom
  
  
  
  
• 
  134

  How far do we get away from 1914

  by PimoElder in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  how far do we get away from 1914 before they have a new light and admit it was all wrong?.

  they cling to the old theory of the 77 week prophecy from the wrong date that jerusalem was destroyed .

  with the overlapping generations nonsense still we are getting too far away from 1914. what will they say if we get to the 2030s and they still cling to 1914?.

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• 

  Terry

  My attitude is: "Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me."
  
  Let's consider the situation RATIONALLY.
  Consider the story of JOB. He preached a message of destruction (very reluctantly).
  He was coerced! (Remember the great fish?)
  But finally - preach he did and then Jehovah SPARED the Ninevites.
  This sent JOB into a very ugly snit-fit.
  Something he said went sort of like this: "I look like a fool having preached destruction and now you spared those Yahoos, Jah!"
  
  Here is what I extract from that. The purpose of threatening destruction was to drive people to repentance and reform.
  Job had no interest in SAVING people.
  
  JW's largely preach to save their own asses and have an ugly eagerness for the destruction of others at Armageddon.
  
  The bottom line is this: Saving people can take forever. Every hour of every day of every week, etc. NEW PEOPLE are being born in need of being saved.
  As long as people repent - Jah isn't going to make good on any predicted dates for destruction.
  Serving God isn't about being right in predicting doom. No.
  Being loving, grateful, and willing to save others is the best attitude.
  IF there ever comes a time when no people are left with a repentant heart - THEN the destruction comes.
  I think that is a much more reasonable and less selfish (bloodthirsty) view.
  
  
• 
  3

  Science Fiction Short Story

  by Terry in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  https://docs.google.com/document/d/1rvjietqhb6kqpbmyo6jsnt6uqvxddzx7i7qxoauzohg/edit?usp=sharing.

  personation alien factor 7“enter, and be seated but do not speak.

  do you understand?”“yes.”“violation!

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• 

  Terry

  luckynedpepper3 hours ago

  i read everything you post.
  
  Well shucks! That's enough to keep me going.
  Feel free to leave any sort of feedback. I am never offended
  by any sort of critique because you learn from it.
  
  Thanks for your time and attention, gentle reader :)