The irony of this is if someone were the type to lie and make up a phoney experience and tell it on stage to thousands of people, they probably would bat an eyelid at signing a false declaration of truthfulness now would they?
Cog
cognizant dissident
JoinedPosts by cognizant dissident
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25
DECLARATION OF TRUTHFULNESS
by tijkmo in.
i was just at my sis for supper...it came up in conversation that when they (her and hubby) were on the last circuit assembly programme - relating an experience - he had to sign a declaration specifying that the experience was true.. i was completely taken aback by this...the irony etc...they were surprised that i was unaware of this.. funnily enough the reason it came up was that in a different talk an experience had been acted out that is almost certainly untrue..given that it happened to a girl who is seeing a psychiatrist for constant lieing...her father had the assembly part and must surely have also had to sign the declaration... had anyone else had to sign such a declaration or know someone who did.
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40
Entertaining yourself during the meetings
by Mysterious inwhat did you do to entertain yourself during the meetings?
i always had little games i played.
to this day i have a fascination with notebooks and write almost compulsively when something is wrong.
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cognizant dissident
When I was little I used to make list of things like all the words I knew that started with a certain letter.
When that got boring, I would make a list of all the swear words I knew. (Almost got caught when my dad found the crumpled up paper, but he thought it was my brother's writing)
I used to see how long I could hold my breath and time my self on the second hand of my watch. When I kept turning blue my stepmother made me stop!
I pulled hairs with split ends out of my head and tried to see if I could split the hair all the way down without breaking it.
I folded note paper and programs, Kingdom Ministries, etc. into fans and pretended I was hot and fanned myself.
I took pens apart and put them back together, also did the secret note in the pen thing.
I put juicy fruit wrappers back together to make it look like it still had gum in it and offered it to whoever was sitting beside me.
I put sweet harts candies in my pocket with love messages and passed them through the crack in the seat to the cute boy sitting behind me. (When I got caught, I couldn't sit in front of him anymore)
I made finger puppets and those paper thingys where you pick a number and there is a secret message inside.
Experimented with how much time I could possibly waste in the bathroom before my stepmother came looking for me.
Oh, and last but not least, doodled moustachs on all the beardless Israelites in the Watchtower. (including the women)
Cog... ahh the memories
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7
Rainy Days & Monday Mornings
by Outaservice inmost normal people i know and am around, look forward to the weekend and nice weather.
even though i have not been a publisher for several years now, i still associated weekends with taking the group out in service and baby sitting a lot of the kids from the hall, who the parents dropped off.
what a pleasure monday mornings were when i could go back to work.. also, nothing was greater than a stormy blizzard in the winter, or a thunderstorm (.
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cognizant dissident
Well count me in a as a weird one also. I get Sunday morning blues not Monday morning blues. I looked forward to school starting in September. And I like it when it is stormy and rainy outside. Thunder and lightening are even better! If it's too hot or sunny, I get depressed and want to hide under the covers like a mole. I think I must be a hopelessly melancholy, insomniac, night owl, rainy day kind of person!
Cog
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80
A Night In The Woods...
by Justice-One ini just got back from a trip designed to conquer a fear.
i have always been afraid to camp by myself in the deep woods, and last week i set out to change that.
next night.
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cognizant dissident
Hey you guys! I totally understand what you are saying dudes! lol. I live in BC. Home of the famous (infamous) BC bud. I was a nurse and I have seen paraplegic patients growing little plants in the window sill of the rehab unit no less! Yes, the police leave most of those people alone here, too. I do think everyone who is medicated (legal or not) and drives or hurts someone should be fully accountable.
I guess, I was just thinking that if everyone who wanted to could grow their own, then it would eliminate the market for the huge commercial criminal grow-up. Like with alcohol and prohibition, people who want it will get it anyway, so why not just make it legal and tax it or something and hold people accountable for what they do while under the influence.
I didn't really think about the huge international market though, that is really feeding these grow-ups. So yes, I guess it is a very complicated problem with no easy solutions.
No worries. Peace out.
Cog
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80
A Night In The Woods...
by Justice-One ini just got back from a trip designed to conquer a fear.
i have always been afraid to camp by myself in the deep woods, and last week i set out to change that.
next night.
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cognizant dissident
Thanks for the compliment, Justice. Now do you want to hear the funny truth? I was raised in the city, never went camping, fishing, hunting or skiing as a child. I think I visited a farm once. I am a book worm, and I don't like to get dirty.
My husband first took me hiking, and I whined about my blisters and heavy pack the whole way. lol. He also took me camping, cross country skiing, river and boat fishing, and taught me how to shoot target practice. He didn't take me hunting though, because he knew I couldn't really kill anything. (I am a awesome shot though.) I have a lot of respect for the survival skills this man has and feel safe knowing in an emergency he could probably feed us off the land and build us a shelter (he is a builder by trade). His parents and my mother were also raised on farms which I have visited and seen the cow milked and the chicken's neck rung and plucked, the hogs raised for market, and the hound dogs bring in the kill. These are hard working, strong people who have a lot of knowledge of the soil and respect for the land. I believe they deserve admiration and respect not criticism from us city slickers who have never gotten our hands dirty
Cog.
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80
A Night In The Woods...
by Justice-One ini just got back from a trip designed to conquer a fear.
i have always been afraid to camp by myself in the deep woods, and last week i set out to change that.
next night.
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cognizant dissident
Hey Daniel
I'm with you. I wrote that but I have never killed or skinned or bled my own meat either. My husband does it for me. If I had to do it, I would be a vegetarian too because I am a big softy. I tell my husband, if you want to eat meat, then you better bring it to me clean and filleted and packaged up like you got it from Safeway! I don't think this is hypocritical, it is just honest about my own limitations! I want to be disconnected from the meat I am eating. I don't want to think about what it was or I tend to lose my appetite. But at least I'm honest about this disconnect. I don't think it's fair of people to trash the hunters of meat out there unless they are total vegetarians. That is hypocrasy!
We used to have witness friends that gave my husband a hard time for hunting. My husband has great respect for the wilderness and does not trophy hunt. Only for food. I would ask them if they ate meat. They would say yes, but that's different, it was raised for food. I would ask them if they think that was any consolation to the cow on his way to the slaughterhouse? At least the deer or moose my husband shot had a nice life before my husband downed it with one clean shot! You can bet the cow didn't. I hate hypocrasy!
Cog
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80
A Night In The Woods...
by Justice-One ini just got back from a trip designed to conquer a fear.
i have always been afraid to camp by myself in the deep woods, and last week i set out to change that.
next night.
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cognizant dissident
At the risk of taking this threat into another controversial turn, I can't help but notice that most of the pot smokers I've met are rather mellow and peaceful types who enjoy nature and wouldn't hurt a fly. (and no, I don't smoke pot, at least not anymore ). Yet, so many of us are acknowledging the very real danger of accidentally coming upon grow-ops in the woods and the fear of resulting violence. Understandable, because there is huge money to be made and where the big money is, greed and violence usually follow.So, just a thought to throw out there. How many think this problem might be somewhat alleviated by the legalization of marijuana. Then any medical users, or just mellow users, could grow a few plants in peace on their window sills and it would eliminate the market for grow-op dealers and eliminate the tax dollars needed for police to enforce the law and also cut down on the back log in our courts and free up a few much needed jail cells so we could give the pedophiles some longer sentences! Just a thought.
Cog
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80
A Night In The Woods...
by Justice-One ini just got back from a trip designed to conquer a fear.
i have always been afraid to camp by myself in the deep woods, and last week i set out to change that.
next night.
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cognizant dissident
It occurs to me, while participating in this thread, that many of us who live in cities or towns, work in offices or stores or other buildings, buy our meat and milk and produce from a supermarket and our clothes from Costco and Walmart, have lost touch with the land and our environment to some degree. Many of us have never slept outdoors under the stars, many have never milked a cow and drank the milk straight from it. Many have never dug our hands in the soil, toiling in the hot sun to water and weed and harvest our own food. Many have never had to kill our own meat, pour the blood out, skin it and cut and cook it over a fire and know that we have taken a life to sustain our own.
We are deeply connected to our earth, our environment and other beings human and animal. We have a relationship and interdependence that is undeniable, yet we deny it in a hundred little ways every day. Some brave souls, like to go out into the woods, or the oceans, alone, and remind themselves of this relationship, contemplate this connection. It can bring deeper understanding of ourselves and our world.
Cog
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80
A Night In The Woods...
by Justice-One ini just got back from a trip designed to conquer a fear.
i have always been afraid to camp by myself in the deep woods, and last week i set out to change that.
next night.
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cognizant dissident
Good question Serendipity
I am a creature of comforts so I don't like camping that much. I want to be clean and sleep in a comfy bed. I do see the appeal in it though. Sometimes, it gets very quiet and peaceful and you are communing with nature and feeling the rythm of life and how it is all connected in some way. It can be a deeply spiritual experience. Humbleing also. Don't get the impression, because of the turn this thread has taken, that outdoorsmen are all out there constantly on guard with their fight or flight reflex constantly triggered, their rifle on the ready, waiting to be attacked. It's just that the rational mind understands and respects the fact that unexpected encounters can happen and takes the sensible precautions. Then you relax and enjoy nature.
Think of it as a person who understands robberies might occur in their neighbourhood. They lock their doors, perhaps get an alarm, buy some insurance, keep their valuables in a safe or safety deposit box. Then they relax and enjoy their home. They do not sit in fear behind locked doors, afraid to go out or afraid to open the door and let anyone from the world in. Well, actually, some do that because their fear and paranoia get the better of them. That's not what we are talking about here, though. Just understanding the risks and taking sensible precautions. That's what Justice was doing, and then he sat in the dark and faced up to and conquered any irrational fears or paranoia he might have. What an empowering exerience!
Cog
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22
Missing the friends left behind
by The wanderer inmissing the friends left behind
miss any of their friends that they left behind in the organization.
understandable in a way, why they feel the way they do.
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cognizant dissident
Do not believe the ones who would tell you that all your JW friends had conditional love for you. Some of them did, to be sure. But the same can be said of the new friends that you make outside of the org.
There is a lot of truth in this Robdar. I believe unconditional love is for kittens and puppies and children. In the adult world, everyone has boundaries and lines in the sand, conditions if you will, that cannot be crossed or negative judgement will follow. If you had a dear, close friend who later turned out to be a murderer, or a rapist or who stole your money or worse, your spouse, would you still be their friend? Even most "worldly" people would not, although I grant you that there are some forgiving souls who might still love you and forgive you. Perhaps a mother or a spouse or a dear friend. It's just that everyone's boundaries are different, but they are still there. Jehovah's Witnesses have more conditions than most, that is true but even they are not all the same. Some will shun you for your perceived crimes without hesitation, some will still love you and find a way around it. This is just the way people are. You cannot paint them all with one brush.
Cog