Thanks, Odrade, for turning up to my soiree last night, Jill and I were really glad to see you! It was over around 1am - the music DID get better as the night went on, beer is a great social lubricant. Glen
Anyway, here's a short list of what I know at 50, and with just a few BOrg implants remaining; than when I was 27, when I signed up for being an unpaid salesman for a closely-held relgious publishing empire (aka when I got baptized by O's Dad)
1. I know a bit about Jung's term "Synchronicty" (unexplained coincidences) now; I didn't then. When things went pro-JW when I was studying it was "Jehovah's direction", and when they went against it was "Satan's deception". Now I know that both are just like the new car syndrome, when you buy such-and-such a model you see them all over the place. It's just life, not some monumental drama that you think you are part of.
2. It is downright awful to put JW-pressure on your kids when they are schoolchildren, it's just not fair. When we left 5+ years ago I told our son that I had told his mother years before that if he or his sister needed a blood transfussion they would have got one, no matter what. He deeply sighed and said, Thank God for that! I never knew how he felt about it when we were BOrg, I was sickened by how he must have felt all those years.
3. Take care of your teeth. And don't get in any car wrecks that bugger-up your back, neck, knees etc. The pain stays with you always.
4. There are no simplistic answers to complex universal questions. There's methphors and parables not absolutes - like the FD&S, it's just a parable not a license to rule 12 million people worldwide according to the truth-of-the-day.
5. There is no such thing as Present or Current Truth, or New Light. It's either true or false, the Bible never changes. Take the 1500 errors in The Finished Mystery book of 1917. Total rubbish, and yet Jesus approved it? BS! (aka Bollocks!)
6. Societies that ostracize and consider former members as "dead" are evil. Actually anyone whose aim is to control another is evil.
7. Relationships with worldly people are generally good. It's a case of getting out what you put in. You trust and peole trust you. Be practical there's a lot of very fine people around. The folks at work were wonderful as we were leaving, and they were very tolerant (more than I would have been) when we were still in the collective.
8. Often there's something at the back of your mind (perhaps the realm of your inner self) that's inviolable. Here's an example of mine. When we were studying the topic of 1975 and the date of Armageddon came up and how close it had to be: I remember thinking, Well if it's not here by 2000 then I'll do something else. It wasn't, we had left by 1998.
9. Although I don't really understand why, I once was a devout JW. I would never have spoken to apostates or read apostate literature, yet here I am. I always try to remember I was that way. I try to not get upset by what I now consider rantings of a contol-oriented culture.
10. I wish I had left more slowly. Although my family left in tact, and is still in tact - we were the black sheep of our resepctive families by becoming JWs - I wish I hadn't been so vitriolic in my conclusions as I was leaving. The only local elder (a lovely "annointed" man, perhaps a true Christian by any count) was the last to talk to me. At one point in the visit (aside from mentioning he had helped 60 into the "truth" and he couldn't leave) he said that an old brother back at Bethel had told him that "the brothers wouldn't be able to handle the truths yet to be told". I wish I hadn't told our friend that he was damned right, Ray Franz had nailed it 20 odd years ago and the details were in Crisis of Conscience.
Peace, Love and Understanding everyone!
Glen, who once was Deleted
PS O, if you have any children we would be honored to be their grandparents and take them to the Zoo :-)
