Can you tell I'm Canadian? "Give er" Next I'll be saying "eh" :)
Mim
Posts by Mim
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36Assemblies...conventions...special days...
by NikL inthere is a phenomenon in dub dom that i have always hated.
the circuit/district convention.. people will spend hard earned money, use up any vacation they may have to travel to a city they don't really have any particular reason to see to sit for entire days and listen to the same b.s.
they could sit and listen to at the meetings in their home kingdom hall.
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36
Assemblies...conventions...special days...
by NikL inthere is a phenomenon in dub dom that i have always hated.
the circuit/district convention.. people will spend hard earned money, use up any vacation they may have to travel to a city they don't really have any particular reason to see to sit for entire days and listen to the same b.s.
they could sit and listen to at the meetings in their home kingdom hall.
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Mim
I remember assemblies and taking my kids all while living under the stigma of being a sister with an "unbelieving" mate! I still think alot of the other sisters were jealous.:) Bob used to come and get the kids after lunch so I could listen to the rest of the meeting. Yes I used to take notes, I still have some actually. As Bob was not a JW I had a lot more freedom than any of my witness friends, I could work, I could have an opinion, I didn't have to dress like a frump. Remember those horrid wide collared dresses, with white nylons and flat shoes? I haven't worn nylons since leaving the dubs and I gave all my "meeting clothes" away to the Salvation Army. Poetic justice that.
My bum used to just KILL me after the 3 day DC's. I remember having a numb bum for a day or two afterward. And the boredom. When I was pregnant with the twins in 94, my last year, I was so ill. The smell of anything made me sick. I couldn't go to the meetings or the conventions because getting in our car, the smell of the interior, it was new made me so ill. The elders came to see me and said I should be willing to barf all the way to the KH (40 minutes) just to take in the spiritual food!! What about my physical food?:) Bob wouldn't let me go and that was the beginning of the end.
My fantasy is to go to the convention with a bullhorn and a sign and just give 'er. Much more fun to be apostate than apathetic and trapped!
Mim
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39
If you went back...
by LovesDubs inive not been to a meeting in five years probably.
yet my husband still goes and i always envision him going in and the hardy handshakes he gives, greeting and being greeted, sitting there with all those suits with the secrets hidden inside, and all those pretty dresses hiding the pain.
if i wasnt disassociated, i wonder if i would be bolder, speak up, be honest with the "friends" instead of toeing the company line.
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Mim
Hey all, its very nice to meet you. To answer the question of have I done other projects I have writen several articles on Jehovah's Witness women, and spoken extensively about them.
But my dissertation is the "big one" so to speak:)I am so enjoying reading everyone's thoughts and experiences. Re: the Chronic Fatigue and Fibromyalgia back in the early nineties when I was in my middle twenties, I was diagnosed with CF. I was just exhausted all the time. I realize now that I was desperately trying to get "out" of the meetings and service ect. I am NOT suggesting that anyone else does this, but subconciously I was just plain tired of being a JW. Noone believed me. JW's can be very punitive on those who are ill I find. And I was ill, regardless of what was causing it.
I hated being a Jehovah's Witness, I know that now. I was always wrestling with my "self" who I was, who I am. My husband was not a Witness, I married him during a hiatus from the truth at 21 in 1987. I was baptized in 89 at the age of 23. I had been raised in the religion from the age of four. I used to pray at the doors that noone was home. I hated the meetings. I used to count paragraphs in the Watchtower:) Anyone else do that? Bob was awesome, he still is. We managed to survive my leaving, and for awhile I left him, I was so torn apart. The CF symptoms have been gone since I left. Just disappeared.
With all that I saw women go through in the religion for so many years, and women do suffer, I am now teaching and working with and for women. It REALLY fuels my feminism and convinces me that women need to nurture themselves, their autonomy and their talents. I saw someone's post that said "pretty dresses hiding the pain" and I thought that was SO right. No one speaks "truth" in that organization, no matter what they say. Never be afraid of anger folks, that is one thing that I have found. It got me through a four year degree with straight A's, and I have three young boys. Its what you do with it. I tell myself when I am down or depressed or having difficulty because of emotional JW fallout that I MUST do well, I must continue to excel, that I can't let go of what needs to be done, of what needs to be said.
I work out, I'm vegetarian and I see a counselor who also is an exJW. It all helps. I hope no one minds this post, its good to talk to others again who are going through all this crap and who I know "get" it.:)
Got to get the little guys to school...
Peace
mim -
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If you went back...
by LovesDubs inive not been to a meeting in five years probably.
yet my husband still goes and i always envision him going in and the hardy handshakes he gives, greeting and being greeted, sitting there with all those suits with the secrets hidden inside, and all those pretty dresses hiding the pain.
if i wasnt disassociated, i wonder if i would be bolder, speak up, be honest with the "friends" instead of toeing the company line.
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Mim
I am familiar with qualitative content scoring, I don't intend to use it. I tend to keep my research straightforward and try to stick to the way the participants intended their narrative to sounds. This for me is more about "what" the work says collectively. Its not intended as my voice filtered through crucial analysis. Feminist research is a tad different and it is this approach that interests me.
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If you went back...
by LovesDubs inive not been to a meeting in five years probably.
yet my husband still goes and i always envision him going in and the hardy handshakes he gives, greeting and being greeted, sitting there with all those suits with the secrets hidden inside, and all those pretty dresses hiding the pain.
if i wasnt disassociated, i wonder if i would be bolder, speak up, be honest with the "friends" instead of toeing the company line.
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Mim
Well...:) I'm always tempted by interest in my work. No umbrage taken:) You know, that comment you made about the need for a blend in research is one of my pet theories actually:) My former boss is a psychologist who is a firm believer in the need for a mix of the two, numbers and the personal if you will, in order to have a more balanced outcome to your work. I have never said that I am objective, my proposal to the university in Adelaide stated that very clearly. As a feminist I don't believe in objectivity as an obtainable, or particularly welcome ideal. With the decline in actual numbers of JW's in Australia I am most interested to see what brought the women in, what factors, (hence the constructivist paradigm), the process that happens when they begin to think of leaving, ie. any resulting cognitive dissonance and what happens when they leave, for good or evil. I would like to talk to women in Australia who are still JW's, and will be spending time up north looking at the particular problems of cultural denial and aboriginal women.
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39
If you went back...
by LovesDubs inive not been to a meeting in five years probably.
yet my husband still goes and i always envision him going in and the hardy handshakes he gives, greeting and being greeted, sitting there with all those suits with the secrets hidden inside, and all those pretty dresses hiding the pain.
if i wasnt disassociated, i wonder if i would be bolder, speak up, be honest with the "friends" instead of toeing the company line.
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Mim
My my my, how quickly one judges. They don't usually hand out scholarships to those who are "flippant and trite." And I do not have to explain myself to one such as yourself! I am simply enjoying this forum for all that it is. Its supposed to be fun! That reply was a direct comment for someone else's quote about being a pile of trouble for the local congregation. That is why I say "hey that's me."
Make you a deal old timer, you ignore me and I'll ignore you!
Mim
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39
If you went back...
by LovesDubs inive not been to a meeting in five years probably.
yet my husband still goes and i always envision him going in and the hardy handshakes he gives, greeting and being greeted, sitting there with all those suits with the secrets hidden inside, and all those pretty dresses hiding the pain.
if i wasnt disassociated, i wonder if i would be bolder, speak up, be honest with the "friends" instead of toeing the company line.
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Mim
I am as always happy to discuss my thesis or the book I am currently working on:)
An aside: are there any Aussies on this group who are in South Australia in the Adelaide area? If so I would love to meet you, I arrive at UNISA on or around July 15, if you are at all interested please let me know!
Mim
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39
If you went back...
by LovesDubs inive not been to a meeting in five years probably.
yet my husband still goes and i always envision him going in and the hardy handshakes he gives, greeting and being greeted, sitting there with all those suits with the secrets hidden inside, and all those pretty dresses hiding the pain.
if i wasnt disassociated, i wonder if i would be bolder, speak up, be honest with the "friends" instead of toeing the company line.
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Mim
Hi larc:) I have a BA First Class in women's studies and history:) I have deviated widely from my formerly held belief system:)
I have been awarded an International Postgraduate Research Award from the University of Southern Australia. Its a very large scholarship and I have a four year degree from a Canadian university, with 2 years entirely devoted to research methodology from the feminist and non feminist standpoint.
I am a feminist historian. I have worked for two years as a qualitative researcher for my university, in women's psychology actually, and have done extensive research into the psychology of women and religion. My work is angled from a constructivist paragdigm with much emphasis placed on the need for qualitative research to balance out the quantitative edge of most Ph.D work.
I find your reply curiously condescending larc particulary since you don't know me from a hill of beans.Mim
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39
If you went back...
by LovesDubs inive not been to a meeting in five years probably.
yet my husband still goes and i always envision him going in and the hardy handshakes he gives, greeting and being greeted, sitting there with all those suits with the secrets hidden inside, and all those pretty dresses hiding the pain.
if i wasnt disassociated, i wonder if i would be bolder, speak up, be honest with the "friends" instead of toeing the company line.
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Mim
This is me! I am beginning my Ph.D on... guess what? WOMEN and Jehovah's Witnesses...Aka The Borg! I actually earned a very big scholarship to a university in Australia, I leave in July. I think it amazes and terrifies my family and former JW friends that someone would give me that kind of money to write about them! I am not liked in my home town already for my outspoken, academic approach to JW catharsis, this will send them into psychotic fits!
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"The Note"
by AuSet inat the 1994 district convention in bismark, north dakota, (could possibly have been 93) my sister wrote a note to her friend and tossed it in the garbage.
the note contained a discussion about going to boy's hotel rooms after the sessions ended, and other troublesome activities, including lying to the parents about what my sister and her friend were doing.. presumably, an attendant found this note in the garbage and turned it into the elders.
on the last talk of the last day of the convention, the note was read out loud to the entire audience, along with the warning that "whoever you are, we will find you.
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Mim
My friend Val and I, both ex Jehovah's Witnesses raised in the "untruth" from birth practically have come up with a formula for this one.
If "Zealot A" picks up said note, and brings it to "Zealot B" and if one has a assembly overseer known for is deviation from the schedule (this does happen particulary up north in British Columbia) then both of us could see this happening! No matter what they may say, the Borg loves GOSSIP!