Posts by Big Dog

19

This kinda sucks

by Puternut in

jw
friends

i've been here on maui for about 7 months now, to start life over after my ordeal on the mainland with the dubbies.

and for the most part it's been good...... until last month when my employer announced bankruptcy.

so i am out of work for now, but and i am starting my own business again.

Big Dog

Puternut, this too shall pass and I don't mean that in a patronizing way. Things will get better, just never, ever, ever, give up.

43

i've been apart of all your stories......been lurking here since 03. you all have helped me in many ways .....i feel like i'm stepping out of the little puddle and am looking at a big ocean....so it is sink or swim for my life back.....and by reading here i feel like i am safe.....though a bit scarey!

Big Dog

Welcome Shania, just joined up myself after my own period of lurking. I have been out a long time, but never had a place to vent.

I don't think you're in Kansas anymore, but that can be a good thing.

33

Hate leaving my family behind.

by Big Dog in

after lurking about for a while i finally decided to join the board.

i have never done anything like this and was amazed at how stressful it was to sign up and press the return key to join up and actually post something.

just a quick bio: 41 year old lawyer who was raised a jw but had the good sense to never get baptized.

Big Dog

To Dan, I'm in the Akron-Cleveland area.

To ARR, Go Bucks!

I agree with the sentiment of just living my life and setting an example that there is life outside the Borg is the way to go, the debates are pointless.

18

I Love Nancy Drake!!!!!!

by whyamihere in

jw
friends

i just want everyone to know...... how much she means to me!.

she is my air that i breathe.. she is my light when it is dark.. i love her as much as cheesecake!

thats alot!

Big Dog

Brooke,

Glad to hear you and Nancy are friends again, I remember one of my nearest and dearest friends blowing me off when I told them that I was done with the Borg and intended to go to college etc. We had been best friends from first grade...well, its not a unique story, just another sad one.

33

Hate leaving my family behind.

by Big Dog in

after lurking about for a while i finally decided to join the board.

i have never done anything like this and was amazed at how stressful it was to sign up and press the return key to join up and actually post something.

just a quick bio: 41 year old lawyer who was raised a jw but had the good sense to never get baptized.

Big Dog

Thanks for the warm welcome!!!

I really feel for my mom, having lost her husband of over 50 years who she was sure that she was going to go into the new system with. And all of her siblings who were JW's are gone. I can tell she is just devastated and bewildered, she just knew that she was never going to have to face these losses as she was told for most of her adult life. What a wonderful selling point, believe what we believe and you'll never have to see your loved ones die, nice recruiting tool. Now she is alone after so many losses and her health is failing and still she clings to the borg though I can tell she had been rocked. And what really hurts is I can't comfort her. When dad was dying one of the hospice nurses said JW's were the hardest to work with as they are so resistant to accepting any comfort in this world, sort of the same mentality as has been discussed with disaster issues. God will make everything right in the new system.

19

Has being a JW...

by the_classicist in

... ruined certain words for you?

words like "the truth," "watch tower," "jehovah.

" each time i hear words like these get a strange mental reaction.

Big Dog

And of the buzzwords give me something akin to a gag reflex followed by projectile mental vomit.

18

I Love Nancy Drake!!!!!!

by whyamihere in

jw
friends

i just want everyone to know...... how much she means to me!.

she is my air that i breathe.. she is my light when it is dark.. i love her as much as cheesecake!

thats alot!

Big Dog

I'm new around here and definitely intrigued, who in the world is Nancy Drake that she elicits this sort of outpouring?

33

Hate leaving my family behind.

by Big Dog in

after lurking about for a while i finally decided to join the board.

i have never done anything like this and was amazed at how stressful it was to sign up and press the return key to join up and actually post something.

just a quick bio: 41 year old lawyer who was raised a jw but had the good sense to never get baptized.

Big Dog

Dragonlady,

Your story sounds very similar to mine, I had serious doubts and questions from a young age. And my parents were really decent people, just misguided, that's why at my dad's funeral I was so incensed that so little was said about what a decent man he was, and I went totally ballistic when I was told I wasn't allowed to say anything at the grave, only the brother giving the eulogy was allowed to speak. I about came unglued over that one.

And like you, the worst thing was what I similarly refer to as my lost childhood, you just can't get it back. But I agree with you, I have pretty much given up trying to talk to them regarding any issues of faith or religion, though as I stated above occasionally something will be said in conversation that I just can't let go, its like a knee jerk gag reflex when someone spouts some JW drivel like "oh soon the end will come and all this will be taken care of". But I try.

33

Hate leaving my family behind.

by Big Dog in

after lurking about for a while i finally decided to join the board.

i have never done anything like this and was amazed at how stressful it was to sign up and press the return key to join up and actually post something.

just a quick bio: 41 year old lawyer who was raised a jw but had the good sense to never get baptized.

Big Dog

I remember my sister telling me that if 2000 came and went that she would have to rethink things. When it came and went I reminded her of that to which I recieved a sheepish grin and heard for the first time about "brothers who had run a head of themselves". As a lawyer I am no stranger to working the language, but stuff like that, I can't decide whether to laugh or cry. My sister always wanted to be a vet, loved animals, but of course that took school and need I say more. She is the dutiful wife of a hardline elder and is so beaten down and cowed that it just kills me. I look at her and see what and who she might have been had she lived a normal life and just see a tragic waste of potential. My other siblings are the same way, never allowed to grow and dare I say it, evolve into the people they were meant to be, or use the gifts that had been given them.

33

Hate leaving my family behind.

by Big Dog in

after lurking about for a while i finally decided to join the board.

i have never done anything like this and was amazed at how stressful it was to sign up and press the return key to join up and actually post something.

just a quick bio: 41 year old lawyer who was raised a jw but had the good sense to never get baptized.

Big Dog

After lurking about for a while I finally decided to join the board. I have never done anything like this and was amazed at how stressful it was to sign up and press the return key to join up and actually post something.

Just a quick bio: 41 year old lawyer who was raised a JW but had the good sense to never get baptized. I pretty much hated the Org from day one and never took to it, but as I was not a complete fool I went along to get along so to speak until about my junior year in high school when I pretty much put the word out that baptism was not for me.

I have really enjoyed reading the posts on this forum, some have been funny, others very sad, and many excellent for helping me articulate many of the issues I have with the Org.

As the subject line indicates one of the most difficult things for me is "leaving" my family behind. As I was never baptised and thus never DF'd there is no shunning etc., I see and talk to my family often. What I mean is leaving them behind in the Org, I have watched my siblings emotional and personal growth stunted by the Org, never fully becoming the people they could have been. I buried my dad this past summer as well and as I have read in other posts had to listen to a funeral service that was very short on what sort of a man he was and long on pitching the Org's beliefs. I continue to watch my family toil away in "service" for what I have determined for myself as a decietful and morally bankrupt organization. I have tried talking to my family (both immediate and extended are mostly in the Org) trying to get them thinking but for the most it hasn't done much good and has only served to strain our relationships. It is also difficult in conversation when they spout typical JW propaganda to hold my tongue and not respond, which typically leads to an unpleasant exchange.

So, in addition to saying hello and introducing myself, I guess my question is how many of you feel that way about your family?