it was the summer of '72.
i was 24 but had been the presiding overseer or congregation servant of a small congregation in the county seat of an arkansas county for about 3 years.. my regular pioneer wife of nearly four years was big and pregnant, with our attempts at birth control unsuccessful.. one of my wife's several bible studies was with a young woman named brenda whom my wife had encountered in door to door work.. brenda had two young children she could barely handle and was married to a very countryfied arkie named henry who worked as a chicken catcher, one of the most difficult jobs at the local chicken plant.. brenda eventually revealed that she'd been raised as a jw, but was never baptized, having left home to marry henry at age 14. she spoke of her family in texas, mentioning her mother and two older sisters, all jws she said.. one morning, just before the meeting for field service, we noticed a small car in kingdom hall parking lot.
my wife and i were parked to one side of the hall in our aluminum nashua house trailer.. two young women got out of the car and soon joined us for the meeting for service, identifying themselves as brenda's sisters from texas.. the two girls, ages 17 and 20, were distractingly beautiful, with the eldest decked out like a magnificent southern belle including hat and heels, her high-end clothing accentuating her very obvious curves.. with no one else showing up for field service, it ended up just the four of us in the car group with the two texas girls in the back seat.. starting our time at a not-at-home, the 20 year old asked if she could accompany me to "hear my presentation.
Bloody hormones!
On a slightly different note, you were an elder before you turned 24 years old ? I remember how we used to slang off at the Mormon "elders", who were only in their early 20s, and thus too young to meet the Bible's qualifications for being an elder. Talk about people who live in glass houses being ill-advised to start throwing stones.
i was under the impression that it was going to be a short war, that russia’s military would indeed subdue ukraine’s forces quickly but that is not happening.
seems that russia’s military power is much less than it’s reputed to be.
no guess how it will all end..
That is, if allowing Putin to snaffle the Crimea (as happened back in 2014) counts as keeping Russia "in check".
i was under the impression that it was going to be a short war, that russia’s military would indeed subdue ukraine’s forces quickly but that is not happening.
seems that russia’s military power is much less than it’s reputed to be.
no guess how it will all end..
I can see Ukraine ending up in a similar position as Finland occupied during the Cold War.
ie. Independent as to its own internal affairs, but answerable to Russia as to all its foreign policy matters - and in the process, having surrendered a significant area of its territory.
A “United Kingdom that spans the globe”?
Not for a long time, now!
(“The Commonwealth” is merely a talk-fest, held every two years. Even the word “British” was removed from its title, as far back as 1949).
we seem to be if a more secular society here in the west, these days.
i'm speaking from the uk.. with the lack of belief in god/s, i'm wondering if all the seeming (note: i said seeming!
), deification of people like greta thunberg, george floyd and celebs amongst others, if people who have no real belief system, are filling the gap left by god with people?.
Do we have an inbuilt need to believe in something?
all I know is that I have got by quite well for 28 years without having to.
see: https://7news.com.au/news/crime/senior-jehovahs-witnesses-member-charged-with-rape-torture-and-assault-of-teenage-boys-c-8044666.
"senior jehovah’s witnesses member charged with rape, torture and assault of teenage boys...".
the 61 year-old man "faces 21 counts of rape, 17 counts of sexual assault, 13 counts of procuring sexual acts by false pretence and one count each of incest, torture and common assault.".
Certainly, there is a court case yet to come, and to cover their backsides, the media has to describe the offences as "alleged".
One thing is for sure, though; whatever the outcome of the court case, it will still all be "Apostate Lies" - together with "Our church don't do that sort of thing", and "only hypocrites like Catholic priests get up to those sorts of capers"!
see: https://7news.com.au/news/crime/senior-jehovahs-witnesses-member-charged-with-rape-torture-and-assault-of-teenage-boys-c-8044666.
"senior jehovah’s witnesses member charged with rape, torture and assault of teenage boys...".
the 61 year-old man "faces 21 counts of rape, 17 counts of sexual assault, 13 counts of procuring sexual acts by false pretence and one count each of incest, torture and common assault.".
Of course, it’s all just “Apostate Lies”!
the real gorby has died today.
he was my inspiration for change, with perestroika and glasnost.. that is why i chose the name gorby at jwn.. see the man at the background.
he was there also.. g..
They were proper statesmen, not mere politicians. Sadly, a very rare species during any era, and none existent right now.
PS: I would include George Bush (the elder) in that category, also.
when i was a teenager a younger fellow workmate was involved in the sport of judo.i got interested and went along to a number of sessions and took to it like a sponge to water ,and as a sport i was happy participating in.. not that much longer another workmate was getting re-activated in the religion of jw`s.
which i had never heard o before and then got interested in that .. conflict : was judo a sport that was compatible with j.w beliefs?
sadly i decided it was not and stopped any further involvement.. to this day i resent that decision i made back then .and i`m 82 years old now.. it was a sport i was comfortable doing and i enjoyed it.and i gave it up because of the religion .who knows what i may have achieved had i continued with it.
Sports and just about every other form of recreational activity. Education, too - the elders had enough sway over my father that I was pulled out of the bachelor course in electrical engineering.
i was passing through a very liberal college town recently during rush hour.
so, i decided to stop for some refreshment at a fine-looking establishment and wait for traffic to die down.
a young waitress waited on me who probably could have been stevie nicks twin when she was young.
You could well debate just how relevant a lot of academic qualifications are, but what is undeniable is the way those are currently preferred over practical experience.
I certainly see it all the time!
Persons like myself, with 40+ years of industry experience, repeatedly get sidelined by some whippersnapper straight out of university; somebody with a string of bachelor degrees to their name, but whom hardly know how to switch on a digital multimeter.
