I highly recommend Dan Simmon's Hyperion, which is a space-age Canterbury Tales. The first chapter is about a parasite that does anything and everything to preserve itself, including preventing the host from leaving a specific small area sufficient to find enough tubers to live. The host's entire former human and intelligent self is truncated, amputated into a pale shadow with no memory, no future, only a permanent now. The parasite is in the shape of a tiny cross, and its preferred spot to attach to the host is on the sternum.
Posts by rmt1
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24"Worldly" what does it mean?
by msconcerned ini have recently been using the expression "people not of our faith" and it shocks me to be corrected everytime by, "you mean worldly".
i dont really like the word worldly because i feel it is a degrading word to describe people we love so much that we try to find them in the ministry.
below are a couple of quotes from recent watchtowers that really give us the esscence of the word worldly as far as the watchtower is concerned.. janusz, who lives in eastern europe, became engrossed in his gardening business.
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51
You owe me a cup of coffee! Said the elder who caught me in my pajamas just now.
by Julia Orwell insaid the elder who came to our door this morning.
last time he came we weren't in a position to give him one because we were doing a big cleanup.
today- well, i was in my pyjamas!.
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rmt1
Harry, I'd like to encourage you to visit the Kingdom Hall.
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2
Fight For The Kids.
by Narcissistic Supply inis pretty much all i've got to say.
do whatever you can to help the children in all of this.
build bridges with them.
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rmt1
I got my natal charts read by the mother in law. (As well as did the test called Clifton Strengths Finder, which I recommend to those who haven't had a lot of time to get to Really know themselves now that they're are out of the cult, it's past halftime, and you're down a few joints and all that youthful vitality, immunity, looks.) According to the chart, my major node or what have you is in the House of Children. That came as a surprise, because I think kids are sticky. The finest hours I had were in a car group, where I would impose irony and absurdity on the short people until they started thinking or giggled uncontrollably, so that my work for the day was done. But never wanted any. My father's behavior, a medical wrath problem combined with the authorized leather belt of a family "head", sealed that opinion. So when I heard the mother-in-law's news that oh, I'm supposed to think about the children, I did not have any obvious options to help actual children. I only hope that the things I do with young adults (I'm 40) will make the future a place where fewer children have to suffer very long in the JWs.
And how do you help JW kids anyway? Without a legal framework to save them from mental, emotional, cerebral abuse (I vote to add that one to the books). They already get away with sexual abuse, which I suppose is the most egregious thing to get away with.
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14
Personality Disorders Attracted to JWism
by skeeter1 inare there personality disorders that find the watchtower an appealing fit?
i have read it before that people with personality issues are attracted to extreme religions, and that extreme religions can make a "normal" person mentallly ill. .
to start off with, i was reading about obsessive-compulsive disorders and this "profile" seemed like the "normal" jws i know:.
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rmt1
I enjoy the study of human spaceflight. One of the credos easily tossed around about the Apollo program was that 'better is enemy of good enough'. The designs and tests had to pass a certain very high specification, had to get the very hard job done, but no more. They had to do a great thing by a close deadline, and money was made available ('Waste anything but time'). As far as I can tell, the Apollo program is antithetical to the JW program, which siphons as much money as is made available for as long as possible, constantly insisting on an enhanced, additional shaving of perfection that does not exist in the real world of flesh and blood, with never a hard deadline stated boldly, and quite a few slipping dates that were intoned only suggestively, and always with plausible deniability. Anyway, 'better is enemy of good enough' is a fine rule to keep in mind.
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30
The Orwells are so naughty! Filthy little apostates we are.
by Julia Orwell inmy husband has started playing violent samurai video games again!
he's grown a beard!
he watched lord of the rings!.
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rmt1
I am curious to hear any anecdotes about present-day JWs and LOTR, now that the movies have come out. When I was still in in the 90's I read LOTR, then Silmarillion, and didn't bother with Hobbit until a groovy career pioneer sister (think if Joni Mitchell or Judy Collins were JWs) recommended it. Then while still in I was hooked and went through Unfinished Tales, Book of Lost Tales, History of Middle Earth 3 and 4. One day sitting at the CA I reflected that if I had any choice in the matter, but had to chose religion over no religion, I would choose to have Tolkien's world be the religious reality I had to contend with. I.e., I would choose to worship an Illuvatar who did cooler things than Jehovah. Jehovah may have stopped the planet from rotating for a day or so (how hot did it get?), but Illuvatar BENT a flat world into a round one! Beat that, Jehovah, you unimaginative noob. Once I was out I went through Letters, biography by Carpenter, Tree and Leaf, Beowulf and the Critics. THEN the movies came out. I can imagine the consternation of a JW experiencing the moving picture of a ring wraith. Any anecdotes? I had a ring wraith action figure on a horse and it never jumped down out of the closet, spun its head around, and recited in the Black Speech of Mordor the complete list of foods to avoid if you're on a high cholesterol diet. I may have missed something that the JWs witnessed.
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15
Once a nerd, always a nerd :)
by freeflyingfaerie infeelin' pretty groovy that i'm starting my college 'career' or what have you...with a 4.0. it is great to be back in school...to stimulate my mind in a college setting, get out of my cave for a bit, and maybe even eventually have the accomplishment of a degree.. or two..who knows... less than 10 years ago, this didn't even seem like a real possibility for me...because i didn't imagine it to be.
but, since the good ol' paradise didn't show up...i decided to create my own paradise (quirky and flawed as it may be) !
and this paradise includes educating my self in and out of school, being open to ideas and possibilities, experiencing things for myself, living until i die... .
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rmt1
My mistake. I made an assumption about where you were in your academic career. Then made a fool of myself attempting to articulate the unnecessary.
I agree that 'to spite' a thing takes a lot of energy. It's a costly behavior and may not pay you back. Whereas, 'Living well is the best revenge' both benefits you and is not spite, and isn't Really revenge. I suppose how much cerebral hospitalization or convalescence you require depends on how much cerebral trauma you endured.
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15
Once a nerd, always a nerd :)
by freeflyingfaerie infeelin' pretty groovy that i'm starting my college 'career' or what have you...with a 4.0. it is great to be back in school...to stimulate my mind in a college setting, get out of my cave for a bit, and maybe even eventually have the accomplishment of a degree.. or two..who knows... less than 10 years ago, this didn't even seem like a real possibility for me...because i didn't imagine it to be.
but, since the good ol' paradise didn't show up...i decided to create my own paradise (quirky and flawed as it may be) !
and this paradise includes educating my self in and out of school, being open to ideas and possibilities, experiencing things for myself, living until i die... .
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rmt1
I chased high GPA, at a great opportunity cost of real-world skill sets, because that's what I thought was most antithetical to the JW lifestyle. I thought having a comprehensive cerebral map of reality was what would heal me fastest of JW bullshit trauma. Having gotten summa cum laude at this great opportunity cost, I submit that this method is NOT the most antithetical to the JW lifestyle, and therefore is NOT the fastest way to be healed of JW bullshit trauma. I submit that real world skill sets that can answer a fellow human's problem, as fast as you are capable, and send them on their way, is actually the thing JWs hate hate hate HATE more than any cerebral ivory tower you can place yourself in. Skill sets, and the knowledge of a job well done, and the knowledge of being appreciated, will get you dopamine, serotonin, and oxytocin. Also, cerebral knowledge does not or cannot leverage the kinesthetic learning of your limbs which have neurons all through them, or muscle memory. Skill sets and a record of aid in distress to fellow humans will do more on a resume or CV than a cold number of the high 3.xx variety. Skill sets will also teach you who you are faster than getting a high GPA. If you are faced with a choice of how much to devote to GPA and how much to devote to real world skill sets (this occurred in my first degree), and your temptation is to go for GPA, you should think about taking the harder road and concentrate on employable skill sets. Let the GPA take care of itself. In the working world you will be dismayed at how much money is made for how little nicety, finesse, subtlety, etc, that isn't immediately related to the job at hand. To put this in one last frame of reference, the investment in high GPA, which is locked knowledge and a lot of cerebral learning skills, depreciates in this economy faster than having modular skills that leverage muscle memory and can be updated constantly as needed. Just imho.
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64
2 she-bears kill 42 children
by confusedandalone inwe all remember this passage vividly: from there elisha went up to bethel.
while he was on his way, some small boys came out of the city and jeered at him.
"go up baldhead," they shouted, "go up baldhead!
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rmt1
I like the aetiologies that deal with volcanism, earthquakes, tectonics. Like the Great Flood was a regional symptom of a local flood, perhaps a memory of a glacial lake outburst flood that got culturally transported, the crossing of the Red Sea was a symptom of tectonic activity that uplifted some area that was under water. Pillars of smoke by day, pillars of fire by night - all these visual images can be given little wheels to roll around ahead of you, behind you, once you get down to writing your 'imma chosen people' national best seller. Disaster is the party application in the hands of an author on a soapbox.
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15
Once a nerd, always a nerd :)
by freeflyingfaerie infeelin' pretty groovy that i'm starting my college 'career' or what have you...with a 4.0. it is great to be back in school...to stimulate my mind in a college setting, get out of my cave for a bit, and maybe even eventually have the accomplishment of a degree.. or two..who knows... less than 10 years ago, this didn't even seem like a real possibility for me...because i didn't imagine it to be.
but, since the good ol' paradise didn't show up...i decided to create my own paradise (quirky and flawed as it may be) !
and this paradise includes educating my self in and out of school, being open to ideas and possibilities, experiencing things for myself, living until i die... .
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rmt1
The TWS was all about keeping you in a conformist and catatonic zombie state of mind, or in an undifferentiated stem-cell state of ceaseless potential, never learning enough about the intrinsic you to know how exactly to spend your precious dollars and minutes, never turning potential into kinetic action, never turning talents into skills, never turning affinities into driving passions.
I would recommend forcing yourself to go through as many new experiences as the pocketbook allows. The more intense experiences will accelerate you through twists and turns and you'll discover where your cognitive, spiritual, emotional center of mass is. You'll discover what crap you can put up with, what crap you cannot put up with, what goals are essential, who you are as a unique differentiated personality on this planet, and how you can use your unique developed skill sets to make the planet better for the next person. -
64
2 she-bears kill 42 children
by confusedandalone inwe all remember this passage vividly: from there elisha went up to bethel.
while he was on his way, some small boys came out of the city and jeered at him.
"go up baldhead," they shouted, "go up baldhead!
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rmt1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RHa53MWg6kg
Mane Hair Thickening Spray - Before & After
For God's ways are higher than man's ways.
