dear friends:.
is it just disorientation, getting old...?.
i awoke this morning and really did not know where i was.
Coco
One thing no-one seems to have said yet...
DON'T PANIC!!!!!!!!
Could be you just had a senior moment. They happen to me all the time!
You might have just come out of a very deep sleep.
Still, better safe than sorry, so all the above advice applies!
Still, Douglas Adams had it right, so don't panic, stay calm, and go and see the doc.
this is my personal experience with this sad cult, which i want so out of.
it's quite a read, so if you're up for it, grab a drink and follow along... it's something very different from what ive read on here before.. .
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Oops!
Like Yoday says: "Try? There is no try. Just do."
Very sorry, Yoday means Yoda!
this is my personal experience with this sad cult, which i want so out of.
it's quite a read, so if you're up for it, grab a drink and follow along... it's something very different from what ive read on here before.. .
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Hi pubtruth!
I found your story very moving. You ask, in respect of the zealous elder,
How would I kindly tell him it’s a personal decision and he shouldn’t butt in every chance he gets?
In my experience, whenever in life I've asked a question like that, I was basically telling myself the answer. You know what to do. You tell him "it’s a personal decision and you shouldn’t butt in every chance you get?".
You're asking the question because you feel insecure in the situation you're in...and no wonder!...but that situation is intolerable. For your own peace of mind and sanity something has to change, and dealing with this elder presents itself to you as the first step. My advice would be to take that step at the first opportunity.
The only thing is, once you do take that step you might find it is the first step on a new road, so you might want to think hard about whether or not you're ready to set out on that road. It's clear from what you write that you see through the Watchtower...or at least, it certainly sounds like that. You're young. Dealing with growing disillusionment with the constricting society you're in is hard enough on its own, but you are also struggling with all the complexities accompanying an emerging sexuality, and on top of that a sense of bitter betrayal by a friend for whom you had developed intense feelings.
That's a hard mix for anyone to deal with. But you have a number of things on your side, notably a strong sense of truth, and of right and wrong, and those are strengthening and will ultimately help you guide your own course through choppy seas.
That inner honesty is sooner or later going to confront you with the question of whether or not you can bear to stay quietly in the organised world in which you've been brought up, or whether you can see yourself confronting the framework within which you find yourself and stepping outside it. It's not a question of whether or not you're brave enough. I am sure you have courage, because inner honesty of the kind you show brings its own courage. It's a question of whether now is the time or if you feel you can wait.
Being young can be very hard, because feelings are so strong and run so very deep. You've got a lot going for you, like your friends in the world on the outside and your own intelligence. There is no law that says you have to do what your parents do and believe what you've been told to believe, and you're not baptised so you can't be DF'd with all that entails.
In life difficult things often have the simplest solutions. Just do it. Like Yoday says: "Try? There is no try. Just do."
Just my take on your very interesting and moving post. I'll look forward to reading how you get on.
noticed this the other day while studying.
i dont know how must witnesses miss this.
it seems many of them are putting thier name over it on a label.... .
Looks like Abraham Lincoln to me!
BluesBrother
Do you apply the same scrutiny to other people's illustrations , and do you see strange images in the clouds there also?
Fair question. The answers, for me, are no, and not really, but on the other hand sometimes images do jump out. I didn't apply any scrutiny until after spotting infowarrior's post, and then it reminded me of my Google search a year ago and I looked again.
I do think the main image mentioned is as clear as day, no imagination required there, nor on the Roman standard, but the person who pointed out that this could have been on many such standards is probably correct.
OK, I get the general scepticism on this. Hmmm...I'm going to stick my neck out on this one and think for myself. My mind will remain open, which is how it was in the first place. Dotty thoughit may seem to many, I do think there is a chance...not a probability, just a chance...that there is more going on here than meets the eye, and I do think that psychological manipulation is complex and powerful. That may be what is going on here...it's definitely there in the text!...but as to whether or not there is anything subliminal I really have no idea.
And The Blues Brothers are one of my favourite films, along with Star Wars, all things Star Trek, and The Godfather, by the way, so what does that say about me?!
Welcome.
Sit right down, put your feet up and settle in.
I only arrived here two weeks ago but it feels like home already.
Shall I put the kettle on?
this is baffling me...someone suggested a day or so ago that outlaw is female?
and what about bandontherun ?
is that a lady too?.
I've smiled quietly as so many have assumed I'm a bloke...but...honesty compels...I'm a mum and a grandma!
noticed this the other day while studying.
i dont know how must witnesses miss this.
it seems many of them are putting thier name over it on a label.... .
Hey, talesin, no worries at all!
I wasn't offended, and anyway, I ought to have made it clearer who I was responding to...though having said that I could also maybe have written more tactfully.
Enough said. Friends?
Your name is intriguing, by the way. A Google search on talesin produced en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taliesin
I don't know how to produce a clickable link on here, sorry about that. Anyway, the word Talesin kind of carries with it Welsh overtones combined with a hint of Lord of the Rings, and along with your lovely avatar that's a good combination to have! It would be interesting to know how you came to choose it?
i am new to this site, just finding my way around.. i've been studying with jw's for about 15 months.
i'm an unbaptised publisher, and until recently never missed a meeting, have been out "on the service" quite a lot.
i've been having difficulties with one of the jw's studying with me and something happened which was just unacceptable.
Godrulz, I wanted to respond to your post last night, but I'd used up my 10 posts allowed in 24 hours so I had to wait. It reminded me of something like playing Monopoly and being stuck In Jail!
It sounds to me as if you know more of the Koran than I do. Here is how my comment on the earlier page arose. I'd been having a conversation with my oldest son, fairly deep, explaining to him how even after the comparatively short time of a year and a bit certain things from the JW's had gone in deeper than he could have imagined, and we were talking about faith in general and the good that is to be found in many of the world's great religions. He had advised me to get a copy of the Koran, and so a day or two later I found myself browsing in a bookshop and picking a very nice modern edition and leafing through. I didn't buy it, as it wasn't cheap and I didn't feel ready to do so, but as I turned the pages I came across a whole section on Jesus. It was very beautiful to read, and I did read several pages, just standing there. (The joy of a real bookshop and the feel of a real live book as opposed to buying on the net!)
Anyway, when I saw your earlier comment, I remembered that and thought to myself that you were judging without reading. I was wrong.
Jgnat, thanks for your comments. I don't know...I am just myself, but I am certainly feeling much more myself than two weeks ago when I discovered this board. At that point, I was probably in a degree of distress, and only within 24/48 hours of emerging from 14 months or so of indoctrination to which I'd voluntarily submitted myself, though not without initial argument. Perspective and common sense are re-asserting themselves. They hadn't wandered off. They broke out of the cupboard into which I'd shut them while I was welcoming in JW's wearing smiles that now, in retrospect, remind me horribly of the ancient smiling singing preacher in, I think, Poltergeist 2, a film which of course no good JW would ever watch!
Thank you very much indeed for the introduction to Mark Gabriel. I hadn't heard of him.
well, i'm going to break this up, because if anyone has read any of my posts, you know i can be long-winded.
yep, i'm the person that can leave a minute or two message on a v.m.. i have been on this board for a month or two and wanted to make sure i'd be sticking around before i intro'd myself, so here i am.
grab your favorite beverage, it's gonna be a long one.. in the beginning.... i learned of the "truth" through a co-worker.
Hi again, AK McGrath! I loved reading your 2nd instalment and look forward to the next!
The uncanny resemblance between your experiences and mine continue, without the Greek element, of course, but including a friendship with an overseer and his wife that got frowned on by Sister I-am-conducting-your-study-and you-are-MINE!
Oh my goodness, the hypocrisies I've observed and endured, and the sheer possessiveness with old friends even being attacked (verbally) to their face and behind their backs.
Love reading your story, keep going, we are all on tenterhooks!
http://www.670kboi.com/rssitem.asp?feedid=118&itemid=29671679.
new york) -- harold camping is "mystified" and "a little bewildered" that the rapture did not go as he predicted, an associate of the california preacher told abc news.. .
tom evans, a board member of camping's family radio international, said that camping's wife told him her husband is at their home in oakland and has no intention to speak or issue any statement on sunday or monday.. .
It just shows us what happens when we surrender our common sense and give others the right to tell us what to believe.
