I was reading the thread here: http://www.jehovahs-witness.com/20/51101/1.ashx and was reminded of the months prior to my much planned disassociation. This was over fifteen years ago. I was nineteen. I was just about to tell my mom what I was going to do when she decided to take us on a trip to Hawaii with other witness friends and family. I decided that in the grand scheme of things, it would be better to wait until after she had her trip than for her to have to explain the change in plans and why I wouldn't be going. The trip was torture for me. While the thought of basking in the Hawaiian sun would normally thrilled me, the fact that it was holding me up on my plans made it an annoyance. Before we left for Hawaii, I would say "This is the last time in service" , "This is my last time at this house for a book study" "This is my last meeting at this Kingdom Hall". While we were in Hawaii, we went to the Sunday meeting and all I could think of the whole time was "Last opening song, last opening prayer, last monotone talk, last middle song, last Watchtower study, last closing song, last JW prayer....Ever". I tried to leave my songbook and Watchtower behind but some little girl came running after me to return them to me (Witnesses are such good people). Once we got home and the next meeting was upon us, I didn't start hustling to get ready. My mom didn't notice until it was time to leave and she asked me if I would drive. I told her I wasn't going, and returned to the newspaper I was reading. When she asked why, I said I didn't want to and that I was never going to go to another meeting again. Later that night I told her I wanted to disassociate myself. She took it very calmly. But then I let several months pass while doing nothing. I had thought it through and decided that I would get around to it when I got around to it. I had better thinkgs to do than write a stupid letter. Enter my mother's whining. Apparently she was no longer Sister Popular since I was not going, and the rumors were flying. She couldn't stand the rejection and speculation. She complained to my father (long-suffering unbelieving mate) that I "had promised to write a letter and hadn't," and now her "life was a mess because" I "had gone back on my word to disassociate". My father had the sense to laugh at her and remind her that 20 years earlier she herself had picked the religion, and she couldn't expect anyone who hadn't had the same choice to follow their rules. Then he told me to stop torturing my mother, write the letter and let all their gossipy energy turn into sympathy and condolences. So I did. My only regret is that I did not gather up all my friends, my Dad and my non-witness family to attend to announcement of my disassociation, leaving flyers on all the cars in the parking lot announcing a "reception immediately following". That for sure would have ruined my mother's reign of martyrdom. Just reminiscing about the days of early adulthood. Shoshana
La Capra
JoinedPosts by La Capra
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Back a few pages
by La Capra ini was reading the thread here: http://www.jehovahs-witness.com/20/51101/1.ashx and was reminded of the months prior to my much planned disassociation.
this was over fifteen years ago.
i was nineteen.
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What words does your animal understand?
by JH in.
i speak to my cat in french.
she understands a few words, really.. after repeating the words and the actions at the same time, they get to understand certain words.. does your pet understand a couple of words?
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La Capra
My pooch knows •"Get off the bed" •"Do you want to go outside?" •"Bath Time" (he jumps in the tub) •"Let's get it the car" (he gets in the driver's seat) •"Where's the cat?" •"Hup" (he sits) •"Eat" (he eats) • "Eight" (he thinks I am saying "ate" so he eats) • any other number (he knows I am not saying "eat" and sits there drooling, and waiting to eat-and probably cursing me in his dog-sized brain for making him sit there and wait till I say "eat" or "eight") •"Place" (he gets on his dog bed) •"Fetch it up" (he picks it up) •"Don't lick/scratch the dog" (he stops licking or scratching himself-or he goes somewhere else so I can't see him or hear him) •"Eat the Jehovah's Witness on the Porch" (he drools, growls, jumps on them with mouth a-snapping) and his most useful: •"Go get the newspaper" (he drools, brings in the paper from the driveway, and eats a biscuit) My little brown dog is truly this girl's best friend. Shoshana
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My stupid neighbors!
by DanTheMan inmy next door neighbor ed is a very nice man.
he and his wife have lived in their house for 37 years.
they are avid gardeners and the landscaping around their house is gorgeous.. however, my neighbor 2 doors down (on the other side of ed) is another story.
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La Capra
Most cities have strict ordinances about barking dogs. Since they act out when your neighbor is in his yard, it would not be difficult to demonstrate this to a visiting animal control officer, who will cite, ticket, and eventually confiscate the dogs from the offenders. Animal control already has history on these folks tendency to keep vicious dogs. The neighbor also has a civil cause of action against these folks for nuisance, which means that the neighbors are not allowed to interfere with the use and enjoyment of your neighbors land and property. If your neighbor buillt/owns the fence, he can also sue for damage to the fence in small claims court. If all remedies are instigated at the same time, the nasty neighbors may finally give it up. People worry that neighbors might get worse if you sue them, and this is usually true. But it sounds like it really cannot get worse than it already is-not being able to go into your yard lest the dogs bust down the fence. That is ridiculous. Three dogs...that's a lot of dog crap...another nuisance to the neighbor I'm sure. I just finished my first year of law school last week. Can you tell? Shoshana
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Were You Part Of a Divided Household?
by minimus inwere you treated differently?
were you shown more compassion?
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La Capra
Yes I was. Mom was one, Dad was not. Me and my sibs were treated differently, and there was very little, if any true "compassion." If it weren't for my Dad not being one, I don't know if I ever would have had the courage to leave. So it was really a good thing I was from a divided household, not a bad thing.
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Need some info on Pistols
by jelly ini am thinking of getting a pistol and i am not sure of what kind to get.
i went to an indoor range today and tried out a glock .45 (the smaller model) and a heavier .45. i found the glock rested well in my hand but i could shoot much more accurately with the heavier (and longer barreled) pistol.
any way, i am looking for a home protection / target practice pistol and would like any input on what caliber to get.
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La Capra
I LOVE my S&W .38 Police Special Revolver. You can't beat a revolver for true aim, and you can't beat the caliber for decent one-shot stoppage. It is small enough to fit in the drawer of my night stand without getting in the way of all my other "nighttime essentials". Ah, this thread has made me horny for the shooting range. Damn I have cases to brief today.
Shoshana
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Have you forgotten what the WTS taught?
by freedom96 inwe remember things such as telling us how to dress, not celebrating holidays, paradise on earth etc.. but what about the deeper teachings?
especially those of you who now follow another religion.
there was so much garbage taught, especially in regards to revelation and things like that.
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La Capra
I have forgotten a few of the really technical things, but I think the reverse statement is true...The WTS seems to have forgotten a lot of what THEY taught ME!
Shabbot Shalom
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What Would You Do With 18 Million Dollars???
by kelpie inhi everyone.... just abit of a fluff thread really.... in australia there is an 18 million dollar lotto draw happening on the 15th of february... .
it got me to thinking... what would i spend it on???.
i know that the first thing i would do is pay off all my debts, buy 2 houses, one to live in and one to rent out, buy a new car, put money in trust funds for the kids and give some money to my family.... that still lives at least 10 million dollars... i would have to go on an around the world holiday (first class all the way) ok take of a million... .
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La Capra
1. Quit my job
2. Pay off my parents' house, my houses and buy each of my brothers a house.
3. Spend whatever it took to get my nieces out of their mother's custody, even if it meant financially supporting my brother 100 percent, so he could be a full time stay at home dad.
4. Get Yizumen housed, clothed, fed, counseled, and set up in a business that would allow him to support himself without being at the mercy of employers, state agencies and landlords.
7. Help pay to build our new synagogue (REALLY help)
5. Go to a more prestigious law school
6. Become a "society maven"Shoshana
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Should We All Go to Memorial- And Partake ?
by Searchin50 inshould we all go this year and partake of the emblems?.
i think it would be a real nice project for us !!!!!!!!!
the increase of partakers would just be to much,.
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La Capra
NO WAY!!!!
I am going to a real seder, where I can drink more than a sip, and eat more than a bite. It's gonna be a PARTY!!!!
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As a kid how did you survive the meetings?
by Parousia inrecently my brother, sister, and i talked for the first time about how we survived the meetings when we were kids.
i loved hearing their stories.. i had a whole imaginary world i went into.
once the songs were over and the talk started, i would focus on the speaker to look like i was listening and then zone out.
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La Capra
I spent many, many hours plotting my revenge against the little old man who caught my mom off guard at a low point in her life, and converted her. He died when I was about 13. That sort of took the fun out of my fantasies. I then just wished armaggedon would come and put me out my misery. I figured death would have been less boring than the meetings.
Shoshana
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When does religion become myth?
by whyhideit inin my time in school and college, i always enjoyed the study of ancient greek, roman, chinese, and native american myth.
yet at the same time we have beliefs in modern religions, such as christianity, that there is a heaven with jesus christ, jehovah, angels, the devil, and demons.
1500 years from now, will jesus christ be a myth.
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La Capra
Ah this takes me back to freshman seminar, when I was an undergraduate so very long ago (the same semester I dissasociated). Much mytholgy was to be covered and discussed (including Judeo-Christian). It became evident that anything that was not Jude-Christian was considered by most of my seminar-mates to be ficitonal stories. There was no empathizing with what the human condition and mind was like thousands and thousands of years ago. People didn't read, they didn't write, and they only knew what their ancestors passed on to them orally. They didn't have a scientific explanation as to why thunder or lightening occurred, so their explanaiton was a god making it happen. If they got an idea to do soemthing or invent something, they attributed it's arrival in their brain to a goddess. If a ship got lost at sea, they blamed an angry god.
The human condition requires that we have understanding of why and how things happen. Absent scientific explanations, others were needed. I cannot bring myself to believe that all the ancient folk before us who believed in the explanations we refer to as myths (which implies untrue-I disagree) were any less understanding "of stuff" than we are. We are told by our teachers why it snows, or why the tides change, and even how we come up with creative ideas (the most mythical-imagination, not muses). It is no different. We trust that the scientific evidence was there for someone to disseminate and we believe it. Our ancient predessors believed the evidence given by their story tellers, in much the same fashion.
It is far more alluring and interesting to think that a little tiff between Artemis and Athena over some god might be the reason a deer got run over last week, than to think that it was drawn out by the light of the full moon, and then when it saw the headlights coming, its instincts forced it to freeze, thus getting herself killed.
Oh crap, I am supposed to be briefing crimes cases right now. Oops
Shoshana