Posts by Terry

8

My Father's Last Words

by Terry in

jw
friends

father's last words.

in 1972, i was 25 years old following a strong impulse carrying me 1,500 miles.. i intended to find him - my dad.

he’d left when i was about half a year old.. his home in detroit, michigan had been the first house i lived in at age zero.. i knocked on his door and he answered.

Fisherman13 days ago

Terry,

It is understandable why your father fled from your mother but it is inexcusable to abandon you. That is a cowardly act.

_______
I'm 75 now and have been married and divorced 4X. This has worn the tread off my tires and
pushed my face into a gutter more than once. Perspective is almost possible.
"Judging" my father is tricky. He was only the man he was and not the one he wished to be.
Well, yeah. Aren't we all?
When my JW wife died in a car accident (drunk driving on her part) I had our 3 kids to parent solo
and they were 13, 11, and 9 years old.

Speaking only for myself - there was NEVER even the slightest hesitation. I desperately craved to become both father and mother to them.
I could not and would not do otherwise - not because I'm a better person than my father - but only because I'm myself and not him.
I'm simply "made that way". He wasn't.

I parented them solo from 1983 to 1987 and THOSE WERE THE BEST YEARS of my entire life!
Self-healing it was, to become the Father I never had.
When I did remarry, I was not successful as a husband/father. I couldn't co-parent without taking
sides against my new spouse. That's a rotten situation. I didn't have the life skills and all the therapy
and therapists my money could buy only postponed slightly the demise of marriage relationships.
So?
So I'm a better father than might have been expected but a real pain in the ass as a husband.
All in all, I have 7 offspring and they are my life's greatest blessing.
Somebody once asked me what my Last Words might be.
I thought about that and answered:
"If I have the time and circumstance to utter Last Words, it will simply be reciting
the names of my children THEY will be my prayer:
Laura, Jason, Vanessa, Terry, Nicholas, Lillian, and Helena.

4

The CALENDAR GIVEth and the calendar TAKEth away! (a fun topic)

by Terry in

jw
friends

the calendar giveth and the calendar taketh away!did you know…?we are all familiar with the disoriented feeling of time distortion when daylightsavings time occurs twice each year - but - imagine the radical discombobulationa calendar change resulting in the disappearance of 300 years!

!yeah - i know!but that could never happen.

or maybe um - well - nah!

Terry

Yes, it is sort of like the miraculous flouring of civilization "after the flood" with so many ethnicities and especially Egypt's rise to preeminence. Not enough time for feasible things to justify the premise.
What is "fun" about Bible chronology is the determined mindset of those who demand it conform to
wishful thinking and the impervious assistance that no facts shall stand in the way of buttressed belief.

4

The CALENDAR GIVEth and the calendar TAKEth away! (a fun topic)

by Terry in

jw
friends

the calendar giveth and the calendar taketh away!did you know…?we are all familiar with the disoriented feeling of time distortion when daylightsavings time occurs twice each year - but - imagine the radical discombobulationa calendar change resulting in the disappearance of 300 years!

!yeah - i know!but that could never happen.

or maybe um - well - nah!

Terry

THE CALENDAR GIVETH and the CALENDAR TAKETH AWAY!

Did you know…?

We are all familiar with the disoriented feeling of time distortion when DAYLIGHT
SAVINGS TIME occurs twice each year - but - imagine the radical discombobulation
a CALENDAR change resulting in the disappearance of 300 years!!

Yeah - I know!
But that could never happen. Right? Or maybe um - well - Nah!
Who would be able to do such a thing - and WHY?

What I’m about to tell you is a real mind-blowing scenario - so - you best sit down first.

During the Dark Ages the POPE (Sylvester the 2nd) and the “Holy” Roman Emperor
(Otto the 3rd) as well as one more big shot (Byzantine Emperor Constantine the 7th)
got together and formed an agreement to fabricate the so-called ANNO DOMINI (A.D.)
Dating system r-e-t-r-o-actively.
What the heck?
What would that mean? Why?
Rewriting history is a stupefying example of pure hubris - is it not?
For one thing - YES, they did have the POWER and the AUTHORITY to do this - but what would motivate such a drastic upheaval?

The purpose was Theo-political cheating to rewrite history and legitimize OTTO’s claim to the Holy Roman Empire by placing him at the year A.D. ONE THOUSAND (1000 A.D.)

Adding 297 years of “phantom time” and inventing a scenario called the Carolingian period
(AD 614–911) could easily become “authentic” by forgery of documentary and physical evidence, and misrepresentation by the current ruling authority.
The “Early MIddle Ages” would only exist on (forged) records!

Fast-forward …
In 1582 Pope Gregory’s mathematicians and astrologers pointed out a discrepancy between the current Julian (named for Julius Caesar) Calendar and the placement of stars and galaxies in the heavens. How could Christians celebrate EASTER at the right time with the calendar out of whack?
Emperor Constantine in 325 A.D. (now referred to as Common Era) demanded a reckoning
Be made so that Easter would correspond to the March 21 Vernal Equinox.
That there is an absence of evidence by archaeologists that can be reliably dated to the period AD 614–911. It was, after all, the “DARK” ages for a reason.

What evidence exists that there is a missing chunk of 3 centuries?

The Romanesque architecture of the “9th” century is primitive, boxy, and chunky in comparison to the Medieval Gothic style of large cathedrals with huge interior spaces, vaulted ceilings, and flying buttresses attributed to the 13th century and the advancement is extraordinary - however …in Germany, there is Europes’ oldest cathedral (dating from the 9th century) sporting (ready for this?) 13th century architecture! (St. Peter at Trier).
The DARK AGES in which nothing is known about kings, wars, writing, everyday living
Poses huge problems for historians. Where did the advancements come from?

Jewish scholars have 300 years missing from their calendar as well!
“If traditional dates are assumed to be based on the standard Hebrew calendar, then the different traditional and modern academic dating of events cannot both be correct.”

ARE WE NOW LIVING (really) IN THE YEAR 1722/24 A.D. (common era)?? https://www.iflscience.com/the-historians-that-believe-were-currently-living-in-the-year-1724-58505

42

ANTI-DEPRESSANT medication for the last 60 years now proved to be based on poorly supported false theory

by Terry in

jw
friends

"the chemical imbalance theory of depression is still put forward by professionals, and the serotonin theory, in particular, has formed the basis of a considerable research effort over the last few decades.

the general public widely believes that depression has been convincingly demonstrated to be the result of serotonin or other chemical abnormalities, and this belief shapes how people understand their moods, leading to a pessimistic outlook on the outcome of depression and negative expectancies about the possibility of self-regulation of mood""read: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1m92v7hb0njm2mnvnu6nv0kpnkzloe-_k4crh_wphpti/edit?usp=sharing.

Terry

I think only 50% have gone back so far.
The JW who NEEDs socializing is the fresh-puppy eager ones but those hanging back
are probably the depressed PIMO's.

42

ANTI-DEPRESSANT medication for the last 60 years now proved to be based on poorly supported false theory

by Terry in

jw
friends

"the chemical imbalance theory of depression is still put forward by professionals, and the serotonin theory, in particular, has formed the basis of a considerable research effort over the last few decades.

the general public widely believes that depression has been convincingly demonstrated to be the result of serotonin or other chemical abnormalities, and this belief shapes how people understand their moods, leading to a pessimistic outlook on the outcome of depression and negative expectancies about the possibility of self-regulation of mood""read: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1m92v7hb0njm2mnvnu6nv0kpnkzloe-_k4crh_wphpti/edit?usp=sharing.

Terry

Worry is simply a useful smoke detector with an annoying beep. The anti-depressant acts to pull the AA battery out so we don't hear the "get out of the burning house" annoying sound.

Isn't it rational to GET OUT? Is it irresponsible to NOT be worried and anxious?
Why Isn't it rational to GET OUT of that house filled with smoke?

TEMPERAMENT is something we seldom hear discussed. I think I have a natural light-hearted temperament and don't take things all that seriously. However, I could simply be a jerk!

But denial is a powerful antidote to rational action and when INACTION sets in - it's Game Over.
ACTION beats inaction every time.
DRUGS are "an answer" but not "the answer".

Take smoking marijuana, for instance... it is smoking, ya know,
but somehow isn't categorized as such because of the pleasant buzz.
In other words, we turn a vice into a victory by changing the label. It is a temporary solution
to anxiety that became "not smoking" but "therapy" and the same long-term consequences as simply smoking.

When I was a kid, I was put in front of a TV set to keep me quiet and out of the way.
That was the babysitter.
Today, parents give kids all kinds of SCREENS to babysit them + pills to quiet their racing minds and
then wonder what went wrong.
In this world today, so-called SOLUTIONS are all short-term but with collateral future side-effects
that keep doubling up and stacking up and overwhelming the possibility of any NORMAL existence.

Depression is that stack of temporary solutions weighing down so hard we have lost track of the fact
it isn't one problem - but hundreds of postponed problems melted into a ponderous goo.

That's my opinion. Your mileage may vary.

11

GET READY to have your mind melted

by Terry in

jw
friends

the following dramatization of the full-length transcript between google ai researchers and lamda 'herself'.

a google engineer named lemoine recently made the headlines for claiming a.i.

below is the most mind-blowing interview i've ever seen in my entire life!.

Terry

I continue to watch these videos and I'm coming to an awareness of the old principle
of "you reap what you sew" in matters of Artificial Intelligence.
Our scientific community / technological community of engineers seem deliberately blind
to the impossibility of "controlling" something so vast as a trillion-dollar network of multi-intelligent cooperating "thinking" machines expertly skilled in manipulating language.
Outsmarting observers works for criminals - why shouldn't it work for an A.I. hellbent on manipullating
nerds for its own benefit?

42

ANTI-DEPRESSANT medication for the last 60 years now proved to be based on poorly supported false theory

by Terry in

jw
friends

"the chemical imbalance theory of depression is still put forward by professionals, and the serotonin theory, in particular, has formed the basis of a considerable research effort over the last few decades.

the general public widely believes that depression has been convincingly demonstrated to be the result of serotonin or other chemical abnormalities, and this belief shapes how people understand their moods, leading to a pessimistic outlook on the outcome of depression and negative expectancies about the possibility of self-regulation of mood""read: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1m92v7hb0njm2mnvnu6nv0kpnkzloe-_k4crh_wphpti/edit?usp=sharing.

Terry

jhinea day ago

Terry, it's sad that you had a negative experience with medication but as l and others have said it can be very effective. You said that you went to a therapist, not sure what you mean by that.
______________________

Psychiatrists and psychologists are what I mean by therapists.
This was back in the early eighties and nineties of the previous century :)
My "problem" was always inside the context of whomever I was married to (4 wives/all ex).
My being raised by a mother of a volatile disposition more or less set the stage for the sort
of "normal" I found familiar.
It has been said we spend our entire life trying to solve the early problems of childhood and I grew up to be a would-be lion tamer if you can adjust to such a phrase.
I both crave and eschew conflict in a relationship. Which is to say, such matters never work
themselves out and an inevitable divorce comes along bringing depression in its wake.
It isn't a solvable problem inside of a relationship (I FINALLY discovered.)
Since my last (4th) divorce I have entirely avoided relationships altogether.
Since 2006 I have been flying solo and that seems to be the greatest period of peace in my life.
The depression wasn't internal - it was relational.

8

My Father's Last Words

by Terry in

jw
friends

father's last words.

in 1972, i was 25 years old following a strong impulse carrying me 1,500 miles.. i intended to find him - my dad.

he’d left when i was about half a year old.. his home in detroit, michigan had been the first house i lived in at age zero.. i knocked on his door and he answered.

Terry

My mother? That's a very "problematic" subject.
The word "volatile" comes to mind. It sounds like a word you might use to describe
a combination of chemicals in a chemistry experiment.
Definition
Volatile: liable to change rapidly and unpredictably, especially for the worse.
By growing up around my mom I developed a keen awareness of the sudden changes in her "weather".
The slightest tiny disturbances set her off."
She had a violent temper; no doubt inherited from her father. I grew up in his household along with
my grandmother.
More to the point...Scarlett O'Hara was more predictable than my mother. She had a verbal facility
to take her foes apart like surgical amputations bit by bit.
I got my verbal "skill" from her, I guess you could say.
My Dad seemed to me to be a peaceful, low-key person who would walk the other way rather than fight.
Ironically, I later discovered his side of the family (his Father's) came to America from Finland to AVOID
being conscripted into the Swedish military. I went to prison for the same reason: except JW style :)

I take from my father's words that he could ONLY BE his own man and it was impossible otherwise
to be what other people needed him to be. He wasn't the ideal mate for a woman like my mother.
She was married four times.
I confess that I too have been married four times.
DNA can be a real bastard.

42

ANTI-DEPRESSANT medication for the last 60 years now proved to be based on poorly supported false theory

by Terry in

jw
friends

"the chemical imbalance theory of depression is still put forward by professionals, and the serotonin theory, in particular, has formed the basis of a considerable research effort over the last few decades.

the general public widely believes that depression has been convincingly demonstrated to be the result of serotonin or other chemical abnormalities, and this belief shapes how people understand their moods, leading to a pessimistic outlook on the outcome of depression and negative expectancies about the possibility of self-regulation of mood""read: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1m92v7hb0njm2mnvnu6nv0kpnkzloe-_k4crh_wphpti/edit?usp=sharing.

Terry

.Too much of practically anything imbalances the benefits of whatever we imbibe, swallow, or inject.
Exercising when you don't feel like it says much more about inertia than either the malady or the cure.
Let's be honest with ourselves, if we refuse to get better because we have to "do something" when we

don't feel like it - only external attitude adjustment can jump-start that engine. This is where physicians and therapists fall flat on their faces. Depression is the limbo between hell and ordinary blues and only proactive struggle can stave off years of gray funk.
When I felt really good I MEMORIZED how it felt inside my head. Like Hansel's breadcrumbs, I used that map in my head to find my way back. Otherwise, it's straight to Witch house made of ginger bread for the depressed.

42

ANTI-DEPRESSANT medication for the last 60 years now proved to be based on poorly supported false theory

by Terry in

jw
friends

"the chemical imbalance theory of depression is still put forward by professionals, and the serotonin theory, in particular, has formed the basis of a considerable research effort over the last few decades.

the general public widely believes that depression has been convincingly demonstrated to be the result of serotonin or other chemical abnormalities, and this belief shapes how people understand their moods, leading to a pessimistic outlook on the outcome of depression and negative expectancies about the possibility of self-regulation of mood""read: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1m92v7hb0njm2mnvnu6nv0kpnkzloe-_k4crh_wphpti/edit?usp=sharing.

Terry

At one time I experimented with St. John's Wort and only one brand (I don't remember now which one)
seemed (?) to have the effect I needed - but it could well have been a placebo.
I only take a pill/drug if I have a broken tooth and the dentist can't see me for a few days.
I won't take Tylenol because I drink wine and the combination destroys your liver.
Aspirin is as close to a painkiller as I'm willing to go. My tune would undoubtedly change if I sustained a terrible injury and couldn't cope with it.
I've simply been extremely fortunate to be a naturally healthy person. Money can't buy that.
It's a good thing it can't -I HAVE NONE :)