within the first couple of years of leaving the wt quite a few people told me to forget it, get over it and move on, it wasnt like i kept talking about it, in fact, as much as i needed too, i seldom did.
its just that they observed my interest in talking with exjwsan interest that ive never tired of.
i used to feel like i owed people an apology because a lot of my best friends were exjws!
Brummie,
Excellent, pithy post IMHO. Well said. I can readily identify with your thoughts.
I don't hang out around here as much as I used to, but over and over again I read posts like yours that get to the heart of our experiences and feelings as ex-JWs, and trigger reflections and "RIGHT ON" smiles.
Thank you for an excellent post, Brummie.
---Dan (Doing my best to slowly replace the "friends" I lost, and building up additional non-JW "history")
how many times have we heard from the platform about jehovah and looking after pioneers etc especially if they were short of money or something material.. in our cong it wasnt jehovah it was other brothers and sisters doing the providing.
usually those who were actually in a full time secular job.
the ones who took all the stick about not putting kingdom interests first but instead tried to pay their own way in the world without deliberately working short hours and claiming benefits.. this sort of thing really used to make me sick.. we even had one pio sister that used to make her bible studides fell sorry for her.
Ballistic,
Not sure if you're tongue-in-cheek here, but I'll give you a serious answer LOL.
"unexpected good things" examples: collecting on an old debt I'd written off; closing sales I thought were gone; unanticipated upturns in my health; etc. At the time, I "saw" Jehovah's hand in all this. Now, all I see is MY hand LOL.
Upon reflection, I guess I'm thinking mostly about financial stuff, but it would include other stuff like "priveleges"
---Dan
i've often wondered this.
since being inactive, i smoke and drink like a trouper, have gotten up to various sexual mis-endeavours (lol) and played up generally.
i'm not all that proud of any of this, just the way my life has gone.
Yes, certainly they can DF you in absentia, but what I'm wondering is: Do they NOW DF without trying to contact you first????
Just wondering.
---Dan
how many times have we heard from the platform about jehovah and looking after pioneers etc especially if they were short of money or something material.. in our cong it wasnt jehovah it was other brothers and sisters doing the providing.
usually those who were actually in a full time secular job.
the ones who took all the stick about not putting kingdom interests first but instead tried to pay their own way in the world without deliberately working short hours and claiming benefits.. this sort of thing really used to make me sick.. we even had one pio sister that used to make her bible studides fell sorry for her.
I recall thinking lots of times when unexpected good things happened to me, or bad stuff missed me that "Jehovah Was Providing".
Now that I've left, stuff like that STILL happens, but now my head is screwed on right and I recognize that stuff just happens that way, you win some, you lose some, good stuff happens to most people once in while, bad stuff misses everybody sometimes....
Funny thing is that while a dub, it never occurred to me to see through the corollary concept to "Jehovah Provides": namelly: "Jehovah Is Allowing A Test On You"......so, when good stuff happens, you thank big J, when bad stuff happens, you still thank big J (for the test)
Gosh, the things I used to believe, hook, line and sinker..............
----Dan
did you ever wonder about that thing in in your bathtub?.
http://www.flowgo.com/greetings/splish_splash2/splish_splash2.swf.
country girl
CG,
ROFL. Thanks for posting it.
---Dan
when i was a jw, i often found myself wishing that i would have been a jw from birth.
that way i would've avoided many of the mistakes i'd made in my teenage years.
now, after reading so many of your stories i've realized that many of you didn't really believe it when you were young.
A big difference that matters now, IMHO, is that those who (like me) were raised "in the truth" have a much more difficult time adjusting to life after the borg. In a sense, being raised a dub like I was (and many others around here) is a form of child abuse that has lingering effects for years and years.
Getting into the group after becoming an adult, and then leaving: you have the perspective of a former "normal" life to relate to, even if you did things as a youth you don't want to do as a post-JW adult.
I'd give anything to be able to live the first part of my life over, without Witness parents.
I think the concept expressed earlier about the Witness life "filling a void" is right on the money. I'd be the last person to ever criticize someone who bought into things.....far more important to feel good about recognizing the falacy of the Watchtower Society.
---Dan
the majority of people who become jehovah's witnesses, really have no idea what they've gotten themselves into.
did you truly understand those baptismal vows that you made?
My Oh My was I dumb or what?
I thought I was hookin' up with a group that was directed and blessed by God himself, and that joining them would put me in line for untold further blessings.
So, I really didn't know what was going on.
---Dan
well here's something of interest; a professor claims that they are in the midst of inventing an 'invisibility cloak', much like the one in the harry potter movies............now assuming that this is true, what would you use this device for???
(as for me, i'd go out to area 51 just to see what the hell is going on out there).......... .
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/030205/168/376mv.html
Not invisibility like the "Invisible Man", [now THAT would be cool] but high technology stuff involving a camera-like device behind the object.....
Creates a kind of strange see-through effect...
FWIW,
----Dan
new light?
the oldies who can't attend the memorial can now stay home and get it delivered.
my gut feeling is that this is a sneaky way of confirming to the r&f that annointed are old... like the r&f are going to waste precious ink asking these sorts of questions - they're more likely to be asking: "should we call the police up on the child-molesting po in our congregation?
New Light?
Nope.
---Dan [of the been present at waaay too many LEMs class]
michael jackson has "slept in a bed with many children.
" what a friggin' weirdo.. http://apnews1.iwon.com//article/20030204/d7ovt4eo0.html.
tr
That fellow is screwed up for sure. As if stuff about him couldn't get more weird....
I don't condone what he does or has reportedly done (like hanging the baby out the window in Europe recently for example), but I always remember the exposure (contamination if you will) he experienced as a kid from Jehovah's Witnesses, not to mention the problems of growing up as an entertainer.
Maybe he would have been screwed up anyway.
---Dan
