Hi Larc,
I agree. What will be will be. We can affect our life with our decisions and we can affect other people's lives around us by being a positive influence. Beyond that, things are out of our control.
Regarding doctrines vs. prophecy interpretation, You know makes it sound like the important point is that the Watchtower teaches doctrine correct but is still in the dark to some point concerning prophecy but that this doesn't really matter since we don't need to know it yet.
However, in reality, during our lifetime as humans, the immortality of the soul, the trinity, whether Christ died on a cross or stake, etc. are basically irrelevant to our lives. But, prophetical teachings saying that the end is coming with x number of years, affects our lives immensely, health decisions, career decisions, family planning decisions, etc. This makes they prophetic teachings much more important since they are much more impactful. The rest is just filler.
To You Know:
Why buy gold and silver and store up food if you will be dependent on Jehovah to provide for you? I remember in ancient Israel, if faithless Israelites stores manna from day to day it became filled with worms to show them they needed to rely totally on Jehovah. When will the rely totally on Jehovah part start up again so that you don't have to store a lot of paper, as you say you have?
If God provides, won't he provide equally to all who depend on him, or will he have to provide more to those who weren't able to store up gold, silver or food?
Joel