Posts by Hortensia

14

Did Fred Franz?

by sspo in

jw
friends

at the service meeting this week it was mentioned that fred franz was very educated and spoke 6,7 languages.

and was able to give 1.5 hrs talks without an outline and quote all the scriptures from memory.. i heard that about him for the last 30 years.. is it true or just a mith?

anyone know more about it?.

some interesting mythology has developed around Fred Franz, also I think many in the org. see him as a "good guy" compared to Knorr who was seen as tough. Or maybe not - I've been out for a long time.

40

How much do you spend on groceries each month?

by aSphereisnotaCircle in

we spend about $500 per month.

that's with a family of three, two adults and one small child.

included in that is dog and cat food, and other household items many people buy at the grocery store, such as shampoo, detergent, paper products etc.

Hortensia

there are two of us and we live in southern California. We spend about $125 a month at Von's buying staples including toilet paper, paper towels (so wasteful but my husband likes them), kleenex, cleaning supplies, cat food, etc. Then every couple of weeks another $125 or so at Trader Joe's, our spiritual home.

My husband is diabetic, I am on a diabetic prevention diet as I don't want to go that way too, so lots of veggies and fruit. Meat is expensive and not that good for us anyway, so trying to cut down, but unfortunately we both come from meat and potato families.

63

My mom was Kidnapped By the FBI Today She told Me F@#$ OFF!!

by Sparkplug in

so friday my brother and i found a nursing home for my mom to stay at.

it was a very hard thing to do.

he had me go hunting.

Hortensia

Frannie gave good advice. Adults who have to take care of parents who rejected them, or abused them, or neglected them, or oppressed them, have a hard time with their feelings - I know because I've been there. Take the high road - continue to care for her - but if you can't take visiting her, don't go very often. Make sure she is safe and cared for and fed. Also, I used to work in a nursing home, in several in fact, and patients eventually calm down and get used to a routine. Visits from family can sometimes set them off, that's just the way it goes. If they are aware and in the nursing home because their medical needs are greater than the family can handle, they appreciate frequent visits. If they have dementia or Alzheimer's, you can't always tell how they will react, and however they react, it isn't the real person anyway. They can say hurtful things - you have to just let it go and understand it's the change in the brain that is driving how they talk. You can't just abandon her, you have to check on her welfare, but don't let guilt over your feelings push you into going more often than reasonable.

14

the credit rank and file are prepared to give to them...

by chelsea in

my mother once found a man's wallet and returned it to him.

she said "i am a jehovah's witness and we are honest people, that's why i am returning this to you.

" when i told her that i would return his wallet also and i am the antithesis of a jehovah's witness, and that i was disgusted that she would give them credit for her own decent nature, she just carried on about how he would be more likely to listen next time they knocked at his door... i found it repulsive that an act of nothing more than decent behaviour (where one treats another as they would like to be treated) was made out to be something exceptional... and that my mother used the occasion to laud the wtbts... good grief!!!!!!!!!

Hortensia

narcissism, pure and simple, pretending to be holiness

125

A question for all Whisky drinkers.

by lfcviking in

jw
friends

hello chumz on the board.

nothing really to do with jwism but who prefers the american 'bourbon' type such as 'wild turkey', 'jim beam' etc or who prefers a fine single malt scotch such as 'glenfiddich' or 'glenmorangie'?

i am not trying to stir up nationalism with this question but am just genuinely curious.. lfcv.

Hortensia

Jim Beam. Ummmmmmmm I only drink it once a year, when I am making fruit cake. Jim Beam is smooth and delicious and by the way makes wonderful fruit cakes.

20

Tired and grumpy

by hambeak in

jw
friends

worked all week and not doing anything tomorrow just rest.. other half is upset i won't cook and clean for the folks.. too bad let him sulk.

i need a day off too.

guess i am just being selfish as i am told kfc is the order of the day.

Hortensia

not long after we got married, I came home from work and my husband asked me what was for dinner. I said, "I'm having a sandwich. I don't know what you are having." It took a while, but he is pretty good now - I work more hours at the job and he does more housework than I do and it all works out pretty well. You have to stand your ground. I cook on the weekends but not during the week. I'm lucky my husband can see it that way - less stress.

One of my favorite stories about being married - I used to watch my husband buy avocados. He would buy a bag of avocados, put them on the kitchen counter, and then a week or so later when they were all rotten he would grumble and through them away. This went on quite a while. One day he exploded - "I buy avocados and I buy avocados and nothing ever happens to them!" I asked him what he thought would happen to them, and he shouted "I though guacamole would happen!" After I got up from the floor, where I collapsed from laughing, I said guacamole doesn't happen, you have to make it, and I showed him how. Isn't that a funny story?

25

Flu made in china, make em stop it

by Satanus in

jw
friends

i'm slowly recovering from a flu.

reading up a bit about flus, i found that about 80% of them come from china.

it's because in some areas of china, large numbers of people and other animals like pigs, fowl and even some wild animals waiting to be eaten live really close together.

Hortensia

to stop the flu migrating from China you'd have to stop birds and people from flying around the world. I went to China four times and came back sick each time. Not necessarily because of anything I caught in China, but because of 0% humidity on airplanes, and recycling of air without sanitizing it. It's the airplanes - or the sick people on the airplanes.,/p>

I read an article from our worker's comp provider in California that "presenteeism" costs industry more than "absenteeism" since people who go to work sick infect a lot of other people. we'd all get sick a lot less if we stayed home when we are sick. Stay home and don't infect other people. last time I got a cold, it was from a bank teller who sneezed while taking care of my transaction and then said "I can't wait to go home, I am so sick." I complained to the bank manager but it didn't do any good.

The reason i am ranting about this is, we have a policy at my business. Don't come to work or to class sick. If you do I'll send you home. we also emphasize hand washing to an almost obsessive degree and have gallons of hand sanitizer sitting around. We have some sanitizing spray for phones and doorknobs and computers and so on. As a result of being this obsessive, those of us who work there haven't been sick for a few years now. So the best thing you can do is stay home and recuperate and become obsessive about hand washing. I even keep hand santizing gel in the car and use it every time I get in the car. I swipe my steering wheel with it too.

I hope you feel better soon. Stay home and stay in bed and pamper yourself. I'm sorry you have the flu.

49

Those raised as JWs-Do you recall the path of doubts that led you to leave?

by ithinkisee in

jw
friends

i posted a similar topic a year and a half ago.

i thought with all the new people it would be interesting to ask it again.

so i began to research ... and here i am.

Hortensia

I didn't have any doubts - I didn't think about it much while I was active. I was into people pleasing and being as perfect as possible (must have been an appalling person to be around). I became seriously depressed, recalling it now I find it hard to believe just how depressed I was. Began taking antidepressant meds and seeing a psychologist who helped me see things in a more normal light.

Then, and this is the truth, I saw a bumper sticker that said "since I gave up hope I feel better." That spoke to me like nothing else, and I realized it was true. Since I gave up the JW hope, always putting my life on hold for the future, I DID feel better. I only took the meds and saw the psychologist for a year, but by the end of that year I was on my way out and I did feel better, much better, much happier. I still think of that bumper sticker as the turning point, although I suppose the depression is the real turning point.

Then I began to look at the WTBTS and other religions and I could see that I didn't believe any of them. They're pretty much all alike, using ancient belief systems based on a primitive knowledge of the world to control modern people. I took a tentative look at evolution and could see the evidence is pretty telling. I started reading what astronomers have to tell us about the history of the universe and it became very clear to me that whatever is going on in the universe, it isn't centered around a bunch of fleas on a rock in a small solar system.

I remember visiting a lot of churches - and sitting in them, feeling really rebellious and daring. I remember I went to the metropolitan community church in San Diego (I think that's the name - it has been a while) thinking that an oppressed group like gay men might have something worthwhile to say. Imagine my surprise when I saw the service led by a catholic, baptist, and jew, following traditional religious services in outline, and spouting the exact same garbage as all the other churches.

The way to a spiritual future is to acknowledge what science has taught us about the realities of the world, and try to live a noble life, and leave the afterlife to take care of itself. I am not a christian, think it all sucks, but Jesus himself did say some good things, as did other spiritual guides in the past, in the sermon on the mount. You just have to stay away from all the doctrine, and hierarchy, and ludicrous belief systems, and try to live a noble life, doing some good, not harming others, or at least doing as little harm as possible, forgiving yourself and trying again on a daily basis to be whatever it is you consider "good."

got a little preachy there - that is a hangover from my JW days when I felt free to lay down the law to everyone, and felt a little superior while at the same time secretly expecting to die at the big A. I'm ashamed of what I was then, but it's hard to get over some of the habits.

60

WERE THERE ANY BIZARRE ELDERS IN YOUR CONGREGATION?

by badboy in

jw
friends

any takers?

Hortensia

they weren't all bizarre - some were quite nice and I liked them. However, when a nice person is trying to follow the rules of an insane organization, they act a little weird, even while they are trying to convince themselves it isn't weird. However, power corrupts, and some were right bastards. And if they get their cronies in as elders, then there is no one guarding the guards, as it were.

45

Gimme your Best Shot.

by Frannie Banannie in

i've been re-thinking about what to say when jw's come knockin'.

i've thought about what the scriptures say about jesus' words to the pharisees and think perhaps i might say, "i don't have any interest in the doctrines and writings of the scribes and pharisees of the wts.".

or maybe i could just say, "yall're just wts nazis and you look down on everyone else as if they were jews during wwii, so i'd prefer not to converse with you.".

Hortensia

here is a pretty crochet pattern similar to the dress in the picture, except sleeveless:

http://web.archive.org/web/20011021222032/http://www.cei.net/~vchisam/groovy/v-14.jpg