"Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms -- to choose one's attitude"
Written by Viktor Frankl, the psychiatrist who endured Auschwitz-Birkenau and lost the love of his life in the death camps.
here is the translation of monsieur leiris' words;.
friday night, you took an exceptional life - the love of my life, the mother of my son - but you will not have my hatred.
i don't know who you are and i don't want to know, you are dead souls.
"Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms -- to choose one's attitude"
Written by Viktor Frankl, the psychiatrist who endured Auschwitz-Birkenau and lost the love of his life in the death camps.
i don't follow the board nearly as closely as i did years ago and i've only seen scattered and seemingly contradictory threads on construction delays and bethel layoffs.. anyone care to briefly summarize the latest for those of us who haven't closely followed the various threads?
it'd be greatly appreciated.. thanks in advance..
There has been the comment made that the destroying of old records has been the official standard for a long time and is nothing new.
Some elders do the cleaning out of files and some neglect it.
a bethelite was telling me that there are 83,000 theocratic facilities world wide.
he compared that to 35,000 mcdonalds and 21,000 starbucks roughly to show the size of the theocratic organization.
i am not sure where the 83,000 comes from what would he be counting?
Apples and oranges...
I would be more interested in hearing about comparable religious holdings. S.D.A. or Mormons for example.
james woods has been a long time regular on this discussion group in all of its incarnations.. he had some kind of "heart-attack" and has been in dallas' emergency ward for several days.
he also has a blood clot doctors are working to break up.. 972-261-4412 is his cell number.. he was in a talking mood yesterday afternoon.. i bet it wouldn't kill him to get some well-wishes.. james goes back a long way as an ex-jw.
he knows where the bodies are buried :).
Thanks for keeping us updated Terry.
I am checking this thread and glad you are letting us know how things are going for James.
Tell him he has 2 pages of well wishes now!
Oh! And flowers! :rose:
during a prayer in the kh all our eyes are supposed to be closed, right?
i've never been one to fully my eyes during prayers.
i'll close them down, but just enough that i can still peep around at what's happening without being noticed.. there's something i've noticed a certain elder doing for the second time now.
I think a lot of elders have a superiority complex about it all.
They do so much of the work that they view prayer and other things as "for the sheep".
Similar to a parent reading a bed time story to a kid
james woods has been a long time regular on this discussion group in all of its incarnations.. he had some kind of "heart-attack" and has been in dallas' emergency ward for several days.
he also has a blood clot doctors are working to break up.. 972-261-4412 is his cell number.. he was in a talking mood yesterday afternoon.. i bet it wouldn't kill him to get some well-wishes.. james goes back a long way as an ex-jw.
he knows where the bodies are buried :).
there is a certain elder in my wives hall that has seemed to developed a real interest her.
first he seemed to feel a need to make sure all her blood cards were signed before she gave birth to our child.. he sends her text messages if she misses a meeting saying how much " we missed you last night ".
he finally sent her a text wondering where her oct hours were , knowing she had some pretty serious tears from child birth and could hardly even walk, much less do field service ".
I agree with freddo.
There are things in JW behavoir that are dangerous and things that are in the annoying category.
I think this falls in the annoying category.
So choose your battles.
The only proviso would be if your wife is uneasy or feels pressured. Then she would perceive your speaking out as going to bat for her and that would be an entirely different matter.
How does she feel about it?
it is evident that the w.t has recently re-branded itself, and has become fairly modern in its marketing techniques.
so the organisation is in that respect forward thinking, and the former way of doing things has past.. .
but this rebranding has been done by marketing experts, who maybe realise progress is progress, and that with modernisation many bethelites " even as free volunteers" are possibly no longer required.
As to the question in the original post....
couldnt it be both?
also, my wife has come to her limits of understanding me about the witnesses related grief i have been having.
she has told me many times to stop reading the ex-witness sites because i get depressed and become angry, which sadly is true.
it's not very productive to be sad throughout the entire day and then shout at your wife for the reason she has no first hand experience about, therefore how could she possibly know and help?
Hi GrownMidget and welcome!
You have a very touching story and I really appreciate you taking the time to type it all out and share it.
The one constant I saw in reading your words, is how you keep trying.
That is the quality of a person who is a survivor. I am glad you kept trying up till now and that it has lead you to a better place.
I look forward to more of your posts!
which is longer, a treadmill minute or a microwave minute?.
... or every minute of every thursday meeting when you wanted to get back home in time to see red dwarf and some elder who loved the sound of his own voice had the mic..
Well supposedly Einstein weighed in on this!
An hour sitting with a pretty girl on a park bench passes like a minute, but a minute sitting on a hot stove seems like an hour.