great post, thank you.
if I thought my life was in danger I would look out for number 1, me.
i work for a mental health unit with 2 police officers we deal with people who have drug and mental health issues.
at times over the last 10 years we have "taken down" some large drug affected men, mainly "ice" these days which is epidemic here, and let me tell you even with three of us it is a huge struggle.
sometimes back up is needed or mace spray which is aweful stuff!
great post, thank you.
if I thought my life was in danger I would look out for number 1, me.
a big decision no one wants to make, but would you have a preference?.
and, i guess it may depend on what kind of relationship you have with your family.. .
jumping from an airplane, not pulling my parachute
i work about a block from the local kh and i notice there was no jw.org sign on it.
i said to my wife are they not following the cults rules on this.
will just yesterday as i was driving home from work there it was on the corner of the kh sign jw.org it was about 1 foot x 1 foot in size.
"JW.org" magazine will be here within 5 years
watch the world's greatest physicists discuss the questions, the physics, the math, the ideas being tested about the formation of the universe..... .
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=n2wh179kos0.
.
i guess with or without god both beginnings require something coming from nothing
i have a hard time with that
but i have a much harder time believing an omnipotant being came from nothing and then created everything else, considering how simply matter can be understood to exist one would think it could easily come into existance without a creator before an omnipotant creator could exist without a creator
how many times have you asked a jw who has attended a public talk how the talk was, only to be told it was so great!
yet they cannot remember the title nor any one single point except that the brother was "funny" or was good with illustratiions or some other vauge point?
and conventions weren't far off either.
I remember once telling a person what a great talk the CO gave. They asked me what it was about and I couldn't remember at all
not a single thought came to me
i was very embarassed
so, i watched this recorded broadcast by one of the bigs,i heard this rediculous but yet humourous statement.
something like ''spritually sluggish is the same as wickedness or evel.
lol, get a load of that lol.
many years ago I heard an illustration...
the Org is like a train moving ahead continuously, to keep up with Jeh's Org we need to run with it, if we stand still the train will keep going and eventually we are no where near Jeh's org.
this has always been the general consensus but recently there is a new twist to this which uses it as justification for shunning
I believe eventually inactivity for a year with a subsequent refusal to accept a study to "come back" will result in an announcement of "so-and-so is no longer one of JW's"
and we all know what that equates too....
i'm into the 7th year of a successful fade.
when i'm at the market i still see some of my former "friends" trying to avoid eye contact.
although i'm not df'd i may as well be in their eyes.
It would take half a day after we left for my wife and I to talk what felt like toxins out of our system.
wow, what a great analogy. I can totally imagine that scenario and can see myself feeling exactly the same
it seems like the list of people who are accusing him of rape and sexual assault is growing every day.
i'm skeptical of single accusations but the number of people and the similar stories seem overwhelming now.. it's not a conviction but to the court of public opinion ... guilty?.
.
I love Bill Cosby
it's been 12 years since i first read ray franz's books and the scales came off my eyes.
by that time i was in my forties.. since 2002 i went back to school and have worked with 3 very professional organizations.
but my biological clock is ticking away and while my peers are looking forward to retirement, i am only beginning.
((((((WANNAEXIT)))))))
I can certainly empathize with you and you have every right to feel that way. 20 years is a long time.
One thing that helps me is to contemplate the lives of others, not JW's, but others around me. The perspective we have on life is unlike so many around us. It came at a great cost as it did for you, but many struggle their entire life without getting anywhere near our perspective.
this comes only from a tragic event, for many exJW's that event isn't a car accident or beating cancer, but losing our identity and starting our lives over.
You could have done all of those things your cousins did and be miserable, these feelings you have are not entirely unique to former JW's, people of all religions (or not) of all walks of life look back with regret about life decisions and lost time.
Does everything happen for a reason? your life as a JW doesn't have to be all negative, you were still you, you were growing into the person you are today.
i remember being at the assembly in 1988?
when this was released.
everyone was so excited that we finally had a simple explanation of revelation with pictures.
i thougth 1988 originally but then seemed to think I was younger than that when it came out.
LOL at theredeemer