Rod P

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Posts by Rod P

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  431

  Things Learned Along the Way

  by blondie in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i have collected sayings, homilies, whatever along the way that crystallize something bigger i learned.

  i will post a few every day.

  if you have one, please share it.. if you lie down with dogs, you'll get up with fleas.. to belittle is to be little.. somewhere, i got the idea if i just took care of others, i would be taken care of.. blondie

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  Rod P

  That that is, is.

  That that is not, is not.

  That that is not, is not that that is.

  That that is, is not that that is not.

  Is that it? It is.

  (I don't know who created this, but we had to learn it on a high school exam.)

  Rod P.
• 
  431

  Things Learned Along the Way

  by blondie in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i have collected sayings, homilies, whatever along the way that crystallize something bigger i learned.

  i will post a few every day.

  if you have one, please share it.. if you lie down with dogs, you'll get up with fleas.. to belittle is to be little.. somewhere, i got the idea if i just took care of others, i would be taken care of.. blondie

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  Rod P

  You can count the seeds in an apple, but can you count the apples in a seed.

  Rod P.
• 
  67

  Do any small creatures frighten & freak you out?

  by Rod P in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  here's the dirty dozen: .

  1) ants- imagine being buried in a sandpile up to your neck with sand.

  along come a bunch of ants from an ant colony, and they crawl all over your head, in and out of your nose, your mouth, your ears, your eyes, and all thru your hair.

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  Rod P

  Here's the Dirty Dozen:

  1) Ants- Imagine being buried in a sandpile up to your neck with sand. Along come a bunch of ants from an ant colony, and they crawl all over your head, in and out of your nose, your mouth, your ears, your eyes, and all thru your hair. And they're those red army ants, and they're biting and stinging you all over, so much that you think you are going to die.....

  2) Bats- You are exploring caves, and along the way you find yourself in this cave that's filled with bats. Hundreds of thousands of them are hanging upside down from the ceiling. One of them swoops down and gets caught in your hair. You are jumping up and down, trying to get this bat out of your hair, as you charge out of the cave......

  3) Bees & Wasps- You are climbing a tree, and half-way up you bump a branch which happens to have a wasp nest. They get mad, and start swarming around you and start stinging you repeatedly. You can't get out of that tree fast enough, and when you do, you find you can't outrun them.....

  You are working in a greenhouse full of flowers. You look up and you see hundreds of bees flying around the room, and they are swooping past you. You duck, and you are so frightened, you have to quit your job.....

  4) Birds- Remember that Alfred Hitchcock movie "The Birds". This woman gets a lovebird from a pet store as a gift, and she keeps it in her house. After a while, some birds start to hang out near the house. As the movie progresses, scene by scene, more and more birds come around. The residents notice that there are birds all along the telephone lines, and poles and have saturated all the trees. They are collectively cooing and watching all the people down below. Suddenly they begin attacking the school children, and then all the citizens. People have to run for their lives, and many people die from being pecked to death by the birds.

  I often go for walks down the street, and once in a while I hear some real commotions with birds fighting and swarming in the sky and in the trees. It makes me shiver thinking about them, as I walk gingerly thru the neighborhood.......

  5) Cockroaches- Those little suckers get in every little nook and cranny of your home, and are very difficult to get rid of. I saw a documentary on T.V. once about cockroaches, and it pointed out that they are one of the oldest and most successful creatures in evolutionary history. They showed colonies of cockroaches behind walls, living there. They would come out at night, looking for food. There were so many of them, the wall looked like it was alive. They said that for every cockroach you could see, there are probably a hundred you don't see. And they keep on multiplying. It gives me the heebeegeebees just thinking about them.........

  6) Flies and Maggots- These filthy, disease carrying, ugly faced winged creatures are disgusting. If one lands on me, I want to go scrub where it landed. One person told me that they looked into the face of a fly, and they saw the face of the Devil.....And those maggots crawling in and out of those dead carcasses. I can't think of a more disgusting sight.............

  7) Grasshoppers and Locusts- Have you seen those documentaries about those huge swarms of locusts that eat everything in their path, and destroy miles and miles of crops and vegetation. Imagine being on the ground right when they all landed where you are. There is nowhere you can walk without stepping on bunches of them, and they would be all over you as well...

  As a small boy, I used to pick up grasshoppers and let them sit on my hand. When I tried to lift it off my hand, it gripped me like it had suction cups on its feet. It felt creepy. It was even more creepy when I let it sit there, because it would spit out little brown droplets of what looked like brown blood. That was disgusting.............

  8) MIce- Ever catch a mouse running across the floor in your living room like a bullet? Those little characters hide most of the time during the day, and come out at night looking for food. They like to leave their little "tird deposits" all over the place where you keep your food. I just want to throw everything out. I worry about a mouse crawling on me when I am sleeping............

  9) Mosquitos- In summertime those things are all over the place, especially when it rains, and there's lots of water and puddles and stagnant pools where they lay their larvae for the next crop. The scary thing to worry about is that they can be carriers of the "West Nile Virus" which is deadly to humans.....

  10) Rats- Remember the "Black Death" that swept across Europe! They are carriers of disease. They are also flesh eaters. Imagine being stuck in a room with a bunch of rats, and you are injured and can't move. Suddenly these rats start nibbling on your body..... I can't believe some people actually buy these from pet stores and keep them as pets!!

  11) Snakes- In my hometown, there are snake dens where these things nest by the thousands. During mating season they entwine themselves with a females, and form these huge "snake balls". Once I saw one ot these snake balls rolling down the hill, and snakes were falling off as the ball was rolling. I was very worried about these snakes hiding in the bushes and the grasses, and biting me as I walked along....What would you do if you found a snake crawling around in your house?.....

  12) Spiders- Have you seen the movie "Arachnaphobia"? Imagine a main "black widow" controlling a whole nest of baby spiders, and they start running around, hiding everywhere, just waiting to come out and bite you....Have you ever walked thru a dark corner in a basement, and you walk right into a spider web, and as you are trying to get the web off you, you discover a spider is now crawling on your body. Talk about panic.........

  Tell us about what scares you, and what you have experienced.

  Rod P.
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  38

  When you see a JW or two on the street, do you ignore them or speak tothem?

  by Rod P in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  most of the time i just walk on by.

  i just can't be bothered, and they are not going to believe what i say anyway.

  besides, should i tell them i am disfellowshipped, which may scare them away?

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  Rod P

  Sparkplug,

  It may be a peculiarity of your Dallas area. There are certainly plenty out here on the street corners and knocking on doors, which is Vancouver Mainland, British Columbia, Canada. I see them almost every weekend, althought most of them look like they are getting on in years.

  Narkissos,

  How did you manage to have such an intense discussion with these two "sisters" when you were disfellowshipped?

  Rod P.
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  51

  Did we become JW because we wanted someone else to do our thinking for us?

  by Rod P in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  ask yourself the question "do i have the kind of personality that is attracted to a strong person or entity that speaks with authority, and is very assertive?".

  most of us just want to follow the leader.

  it makes us feel protected and secure.

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  Rod P

  Blues Brother,

  Re: Orwellian doublespeak on Thinking.- Good analogy.

  The danger of that W.T. article is that they are teaching that we should all try to be in harmony with, and submissive to, the mind of God, but are, at the same time, teaching this principal in the context that the WBTS is teaching only that which is of the mind of God.

  The fatal flaw is "What if what the WBTS is teaching is NOT, in fact, in harmony with the mind of God? Then, in that case, the following of that advice would mean that we would be following precepts that are also NOT of the mind of God." In other words, it's the blind leading the blind, and we all fall into the pit together.

  Rod P.
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  24

  Did the Devil and his Demons do it?

  by Rod P in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  true story: i used to drive for long trips on the highway a lot.

  three-hundred-and-fifty mile trips were not unusual, and night time driving was quite common.

  one night i fell asleep at the wheel, travelling 55 miles per hour along winding mountainous roads.

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  Rod P

  heathen,

  Well, I have not made a big deal about it over the years. I was quite hesitant to even mention it on this thread.

  I am open to the possibility, but have no conclusions one way or the other.

  Rod P.
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  24

  Did the Devil and his Demons do it?

  by Rod P in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  true story: i used to drive for long trips on the highway a lot.

  three-hundred-and-fifty mile trips were not unusual, and night time driving was quite common.

  one night i fell asleep at the wheel, travelling 55 miles per hour along winding mountainous roads.

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  Rod P

  Heathen,

  Interesting, but then why no dents or damage on my car?

  Actually, I'm going to tell you something else. A few years before this incident, I made a visit to a Spiritualist Church in Calgary, Alberta. There was an Ad in the newspaper talking about some guest speakers who were giving talks on psychic phenomena. So that Sunday night I went there, all dressed up in my 3-piece suit. When I got there, I noticed there were about 50 people in the audience, who I later learned were all regular members. The guest speakers gave their speeches, and then afterwards invited anyone of the audience to ask any question they wanted, and these guys were supposed to be gifted in communication with those "spirits" from the other side.

  Absolutely no-one knew me from Adam, as I had never been there in my life. I stood up and asked the guy on the podium if I had any kind of "Spirit Guide". He told me that yes, I did, and he was right there with me. He said that he was an "Indian Guide" (North American, not East Indian), that he was very athletic and also handsome. He described his dress as quite typical deerskin, beadwork, etc. and he had long flowing hair. He told me that he had been watching over me all these years. After the services, I had coffee and a visit with a number of the members, and then went home.

  This experience kind of blew me away. No-one knew who I was, and I arrived there out of the blue. What nobody knew was the fact that all thru my childhood I had felt like I was "Indian". I was always attracted to native costumes, culture and pow wows. Whenever we played games of cowboys and Indians, I always played the Indian. The other guys always had cap guns... Bang! bang! You're dead! You missed me. Did not. Did so. You could never tell with gun fights. Besides, you could hear all this commotion a mile away. Me, on the other hand, Being Indian, I could climb trees, hide out in them, and shoot my bow and arrows, and kill these cowboys silently and swiftly. Swoosh! You're dead. And there was never a doubt about hitting the target, because the arrow was quite real.

  Now, of course, little boys grow up. My interest in Indian culture has never waned, and I have always had this deep and abiding affinity with Native people. I have been with an Ojibwe woman for over 19 years now, and we have a beautiful 14-year old daughter.

  So now, when I had this experience on the highway, falling asleep at the wheel, and that "hammer" in my brain that woke me up, I have to ask the question in all candor, what was it that woke me up?

  I do not believe for one moment that this was of the Devil.

  Rod P.
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  24

  Did the Devil and his Demons do it?

  by Rod P in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  true story: i used to drive for long trips on the highway a lot.

  three-hundred-and-fifty mile trips were not unusual, and night time driving was quite common.

  one night i fell asleep at the wheel, travelling 55 miles per hour along winding mountainous roads.

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  Rod P

  Gill,

  Sorry, I don't get it! Fill me in.

  Rod P.
• 
  51

  Did we become JW because we wanted someone else to do our thinking for us?

  by Rod P in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  ask yourself the question "do i have the kind of personality that is attracted to a strong person or entity that speaks with authority, and is very assertive?".

  most of us just want to follow the leader.

  it makes us feel protected and secure.

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  Rod P

  LongHairGal,

  So tell me, LongHair, how exactly, do you get to be a free thinker? I thought I was one, until I found out how influenced and moulded I was in my thoughts. Puts a whole new perspective on my life!!! How do you know that you are a FREE THINKER? (And I know you do not mean that you charge for your thoughts. Ha! Ha!)

  Rod P.
• 
  24

  Did the Devil and his Demons do it?

  by Rod P in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  true story: i used to drive for long trips on the highway a lot.

  three-hundred-and-fifty mile trips were not unusual, and night time driving was quite common.

  one night i fell asleep at the wheel, travelling 55 miles per hour along winding mountainous roads.

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  Rod P

  AGuest,

  Thank you. Over and Out!!!

  Rod P.