I never fell asleep at the meetings/assemblies - that would have landed me in HOT water. Instead, I perfected the technique of day dreaming. I could look like I was paying rapt attention to the speaker, but in my thoughts I was miles away!
Jamelle
JoinedPosts by Jamelle
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34
Are you allowed to fall asleep at the meetings now??
by stillAwitness inthe sercuit overseer gave the expierence about an interested one who would come to the meetings every sunday but admitted he would always fall asleep because he worked a double shift at work the night before.
the s.o said: "and sure enough he fell asleep during my talk.
" but he said that it was so encouraging because even though he worked the night before he still tried to get what little he could of the talk and the guy related afterwards: "i would not want to be caught falling asleep anywhere else but at the hall.
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As an Ex-JW what have you learned?
by KW13 in.
i have had to mature quickly after leaving the witnesses i was almost 'lost' and spent sometime being stupid.. i have learnt that forcing religion on to people is wrong, if they don't see something themselves then its not true or honest.
they need to decide everything themselves.. parents are also in a position where they need to be careful, they take their child to a religion that affects the child in so many ways, it ruined my childhood and its now a rod for my mums back..
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Jamelle
As an ex-JW I have learned to get every bit of enjoyment out of life that I can. Too often, growing up, I had to sacrifice dreams and experiences due to my circumstances or the "it will all be better in the New System of Things" mentality.
I treasure my husband, my friends who have become friends by choice, my life that I have built for myself.
I celebrate all the holidays and birthdays like I'm a little kid! I travel every chance I can get. I challenge myself to read books on varied topics - fiction and non-fiction.
In short - I'm taking advantage of the opportunities I have in life in ways that I might not have otherwise. It's like a little perk that got handed out to me becuase "I survived the Borg". That really should be on a T-Shirt - ya' know?
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35
What is your rating?
by billyboy inas a bit of a newbie , i'm interested as to the overall viewpoint of site users and spectrum of views.. using a crude gauge , where 1 = completely convinced "stepford"jw ("jhs organisation is wonderful etc") and 10 is a completely rabid "tear down the tower" apostate/ex-witness pathalogically hating the whole jw structure , where do you fit in?
(apolgies to both groups - no offense intended).. i'm about 2.5 - somewhat disillusioned , keen for reforms in certain areas but broadly accepts the teachings and loves the lifestyle.
would never leave.
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Jamelle
10
I don't hate the mislead rank & file.
I simply want to see the whole corrupt mess get resovled somehow!
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Conversations with my dad & sister for 1st time in over a year...
by Jamelle ini recently had to call and leave a message at my parent's home due to needing specific information from them about their places of birth, etc., because i'm applying for a passport.. my sister called me back later that same night and we had a strained, but all in all, cheerful conversation.
she's younger than me, just turned 21 - i haven't seen her in about 3 years.
we spoke mainly of her work, and kind of danced around the subject of my marraige back in march '05 that none of my immediate family came to.. i asked her if she thought my parents would like it if i sent them a few pictures from the wedding.
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Jamelle
Thanks, Tall Texan! I really appreciate that!
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JW (?) EMAIL: Check it out!
by lisaBObeesa ini got this email in 2001 from someone i don't know.
i posted about it back then, but got no responses.
it is kinda a long read, but worth it.
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Jamelle
Wow - lots of strong feelings on this topic. As much as I want to scoff at the idea of JWs turning to violence in the manner suggested by the original email and subsequent posts, the following things make me pause...
* Witness are preprogrammed to be martyrs, they love the idea and are willing to die for their faith. A dangerous element to this discussion, IMHO.
* "Theocratic warfare" is a term I heard used often. Mostly in line with misrepresenting facts in court cases, but the concept could concieveably be twisted and taken further. Witness parents have already been known to kidnap their own children in order to seperate them from a non-JW mate, or others have stolen their children out of hospitals to avoid court ordered blood transfusions.
* Human beings have a tendancy to do terrible things when they are part of a mob. Being part of a whole group of people swept away by emotion can cause people to act in ways they would never consider if they were on their own.
These thoughts - put together with what I know about Witness mind control techniques makes me a bit nervous. I'm not saying I think something like this is definitely going to happen.
But it could happen. Even if it happens with a small, small percentage of the JW population - to me that's scary enough. I think for now, this whole this is probably a worst case scenario type of thing.
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Conversations with my dad & sister for 1st time in over a year...
by Jamelle ini recently had to call and leave a message at my parent's home due to needing specific information from them about their places of birth, etc., because i'm applying for a passport.. my sister called me back later that same night and we had a strained, but all in all, cheerful conversation.
she's younger than me, just turned 21 - i haven't seen her in about 3 years.
we spoke mainly of her work, and kind of danced around the subject of my marraige back in march '05 that none of my immediate family came to.. i asked her if she thought my parents would like it if i sent them a few pictures from the wedding.
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Jamelle
I recently had to call and leave a message at my parent's home due to needing specific information from them about their places of birth, etc., because I'm applying for a passport.
My sister called me back later that same night and we had a strained, but all in all, cheerful conversation. She's younger than me, just turned 21 - I haven't seen her in about 3 years. We spoke mainly of her work, and kind of danced around the subject of my marraige back in March '05 that none of my immediate family came to.
I asked her if she thought my parents would like it if I sent them a few pictures from the wedding. You could tell she was trying to break it to me gently, but she said that she didn't think it would be a good idea. She said that I was a painful subject for my parents and that they didn't talk about it alot because they didn't want to face it.
I told her that I thought that was too bad and that I felt sorry for them. I kept my tone even and calm. I didn't want to freak her out. I made sure she had my phone number and knew that she could call anytime she felt like it. Shes talking about moving out into her own apartment so you never know - she might feel more inclined to contact me sometimes once that happens.
My conversation with my dad the following night was very brief. (He'd not been home before and I still needed info from him) After a couple sentences of small talk he asked me, "So...has your name changed yet?"
What I said was..."Uh...yeah, dad."
What I was thinking was... WTF? Did you burn the wedding invitation I sent? Forget the date? We're coming up on our 1st year anniversary here!
He immediately congratulated me, but in the same infuriating way he's always responded to good news from me since I've been DF'd. He always sounds like hes sorry to hear I'm doing well in the world - I know this is because he wants me back with the JWs because he thinks I'm going to die otherwise - but it still drives me crazy.
The other thing that bugged me after I thought about it for a while was the way that he seemed to be expecting me not to have been married. Like I was just joking or better yet, no worldly man would ever do the "honorable" thing and make an honest woman out of me. Can I be sick now? This is the way they used to think about things and I'm sure nothing has changed.
I'm probably reading way too much into this. It just frustrates me because both of my parents are very sweet, gentle people. (Although my mother has issues I can look at her life in it's context and understand some of why) They have gone through hell over my leaving the JWs. I know that. And it's all for no reason - no scriptural reason - and theres nothing I can do to change their minds.
Well, anyway...thanks for listening all. I just needed to vent.
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Without naming your city, tell us more about it
by JH inwhere i live, you can smell the odor of paper mills.
it's a port city and people speak french here.
i think the average age of people here is one of the higest in canada.. there is a shrine that attracts many tourists in the summer time.
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Jamelle
My city is the home of Irishmen that are know for their tendancy to fight. They have these special gold and blue outfits they wear when they do it.
The twentieth century saw us producing alot of Studabaker cars. Now the huge factory buildings sit empty and derelict on the west side of town.
We are finally starting to get more drive thru Starbucks - for which I will be forever grateful. Prior to now I've actually had to park and WALK to get my coffee. The things people do for their addictions... But I digress!
We have a Chocolate Company named after us. Lots of those cafes here and in the surrounding areas.
Although the city itself is very built up and bleeds into neighboring cities/shopping areas - we are never far from corn fields here. Oh, and cows, there are alot of cows.
All in all, I love where I live! Not too big, not too small. Theres always lots to do, but for big city excitement I can drive 2 hours and get to Chicago (or take the South Shore train). For old fashioned fun I can drive 1 hour another direction and end up in Amish country.
The weather typically bites, though. Summer is very humid. Winter is very, very grey. I don't mind the cold, but never seeing the sun gets to you after a while.
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Calling all children of the 90's!!!!!!!
by kittyeatzjdubs inyou know you're a 90's kid if.... .
you've ever ended a sentence with the word "psyche!".
you can sing the rap to "the fresh prince of bel air".
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Jamelle
I also qualify as a child of the 90's!
As far as the Babysitter's Club goes, although I longed to read those books, my mother wouldn't allow it. She said they glorified worldy teenagers. Whatever.
Thanks for the laughs I got reading through that list!
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Anyone take up smoking after leaving the borg?
by AK - Jeff ini still consider it a bad habit with health concerns.
but i am honestly attracted to the idea of a pipe and cherry tobacco.. i have joked of it some with wifey, but not too serious.
maybe though just an occasional pipe or a cuban would be ok?.
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Jamelle
I took up smoking before leaving the borg. That was one of the things I got "tattled" on for.
It started as a social thing. Most of my co-workers smoked and took multiple smoke breaks during the day. I gradually started joining them outside and my habit grew from there. Altogether I smoked for 5 years. I varied between 4 cigs a day up to a pack a day - just depended on where I was and how stressed I was.
Smoking was also something I did in defiance of my upbringing - Witnesses disapprove of smoking - well baby, light me up!
Then one day I had a thought, my "defiance" was going to ruin my health. I decided that the Witness faith had done enough to mess with my life and that it was time to quit. I was lucky and was able to stop cold-turkey.
Once every 6 months or so I might smoke one or two with a girlfriend of mine who still hasn't kicked the habit. But it never makes me want to start up again.
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Do you know the words to the national anthem?
by Mysterious inah to be a jw and be singled out every time it's sung or played.
since leaving the jws do you know the words to the national anthem?.
thanks to the school system and a pretty good memory especailly for lyrics i knew the words in two languages before i ever left the witnesses, something that i'm quite proud of today.
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Jamelle
I do know the words to the US national anthem and have for a long time. Standing in a crowd of students, being the only one without my hand over my hear, the only one not singing, was emotionally uncomfortable enough to burn the words into my brain.
Now I sing it whenever it is appropriate, before a game, etc. I get choked up a bit sometimes. Usually its because singing it makes me think of all those years when I couldn't sing it and why - which is more than enough to get me choked up.