Posts by teejay

4

dark energy

by teejay in

jw
friends

"using the hubble space telescope to find and study a distant supernova--an .

exploding star-- astronomers from two rival research teams have jointly gathered the .

strongest evidence yet that the expansion of the universe is actually speeding up, like .

teejay

patio34,

>>"I'd rather have questions I can't answer than answers I can't question."

well said! I don't believe I've ever heard it put that way before. I
might have to work that into a conversation. I'm getting
comfortable not having all the answers. So different from what I
used to be… thank god.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
terraly

>> Ah well, the heat death of the universe was going to get us anyway.

the "heat death"? what is that?

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Simon

>> I know this sounds morbid but I imagine various races in the
>> universe stuggling against the inevitable many, many years from
>> now.

the thought did cross my mind, also, to be there when the lights
were going out. Heck, for all we know, it's happening right now in
some corner of the universe (as a side note, for a breathtaking
view of just a part of the Milky Way, go to
http://canopus.physik.uni-potsdam.de/~axm/photo.cgi?Image=images/mwpan45s_bright).
But for Earthers, maybe Gene Roddenberry was right, and I tend to
believe that he was. One day, perhaps not too far from now, an
energy source, freely supplied by nature (anti-gravity?) will be
discovered and harnessed that will make space travel a reasonable
possibility. That's what alien travelers use. The forms of energy that
we are so familiar with today (oil, gas, etc.) will eventually be
depleted, but it will hardly spell the end of the human race.

I sure would like to be alive then. Even so, of all the times in
mankind's history, right now is the best time to be alive.
We're lucky, really.

4

dark energy

by teejay in

jw
friends

"using the hubble space telescope to find and study a distant supernova--an .

exploding star-- astronomers from two rival research teams have jointly gathered the .

strongest evidence yet that the expansion of the universe is actually speeding up, like .

teejay

Excerpt from the Wednesday, April 18, 2001 issue of Time Magazine:

"Using the Hubble Space Telescope to find and study a distant supernova--an
exploding star-- astronomers from two rival research teams have jointly gathered the
strongest evidence yet that the expansion of the universe is actually speeding up, like
a rocket with its throttle wide open. And that means something is pushing it.

What that something might be is, at this point, anybody's guess … For now, the
unknown force is simply being called "dark energy," to emphasize its mysterious
nature.

To everyone's astonishment, both groups found that instead of the gradual, gravity-
driven slowdown they expected, the rate was getting faster.

If space really does seethe with dark energy, the fate of the universe, a matter of
longstanding debate, will be clear. With more dark energy today than yesterday, and
more of the stuff tomorrow than today, the cosmos should fly apart faster and faster
as time goes by. There will be no Big Crunch, as some have predicted, with billions
of galaxies falling in on one another in a fiery apocalypse. Tens of billions of years
from now, our Milky Way galaxy will find itself alone in empty space, with its
nearest neighbors too far away to see. In the end, the stars will simply wink out--and
the universe will end not with a bang but with the meekest of whimpers."

[end of excerpt]

today I was thinking about the meaning of this. You have to admit that
it tends to put into perspective everything that this life has to offer. The
car that won't start, the jerk of a boss, the money we loss on the recent
slide in the stock market, the love we lost. The issues that we argue
and fight about are meaningless if you really think about it. We are
here for such a short time.

12

JW Convention Programs 1969-1998

by Osarsif in

jw
friends

jw convention programs 1969-1998: http://jwnet.org/conventions/.

jw in science fiction: http://www.adherents.com/lit/sf_jw.html

teejay

Osarsif,

it's funny, but i remember the ones from the eighties
more clearly than later ones. i guess i was more of
a believer then, and they meant more to me. ohh
those days of blissful ignorance, hanging on every
word coming from the mouth of "God's Appointed
Spokesman."
-----------------------------------------

COMF!,

you were at the '78 Victorious Faith assembly at the
Astrodome!?? i thought i'd seen you somewhere
before!! i'm gonna hafta check my photos from that
conv. and see if i caught you, by chance.

4

H.O.G.W.A.S.H.

by LoneWolf in

jw
friends

<i>i promised magdaleen that i would post this for her.. plus it has come to my attention that gopher aspires to becoming a satirist and being the loving, caring soul that i am, i always try to help the young.

he is welcome to try to keep up, but my personal bet is that about 2/3 of the way through he will scream in terror and jump out the window.. this letter was actually sent toward the end of june, 1996. yes, it took about 6 months to write it, as i was working 70 to 80 hours a week as a long haul truck driver.

it was written primarily to my daughters (and our former) congregation in alaska, with copies going to the parties named at the end of the letter.. all the names have been changed or blanked out except for p. g. ronco, the branch overseer, whom i know personally.

teejay

Hello my Friend, LoneWolf,

Even tho' my mom was (and still is) a very sincere and loyal JW and an
advanced education was not encouraged, she, along with four older siblings,
stressed what education the law required, particularly if it was to be used to
direct less fortunate ones to "God's Organization." As a result, I'm a pretty
good reader. Always was. Even before I started school, I had a growing
collection of my own books. I got good grades all the way through school
for reading ability, comprehension, etc. I still read voraciously. I guess
that's one reason I'm here.

That having been said, I couldn't help but get the feeling that reading what
you've written here is a lot like walking in on two people where one of
them is three-quarters of the way through telling a joke, the joke teller
finishes it up, the other laughs, and I don't get it.

I guess that's what I'm saying is: I didn't get it. Don't get me wrong -- I
understood every word. Some of it was pretty clever, like the part about the
Mongolians and their form of currency, how, if you looked it up (I didn't) it
would all check out. The allusion you made that some of it (all of it? None
of it?) was real, the rest fantasy. I also liked the moral where everybody
kinda settled down and left you and "Sally" the hell alone.

Did I get it after all?
____________________________________________________________

"The power of accurate observation is commonly
called cynicism by those who have not got it."
_________-- George Bernard Shaw

8

Faith in spite of the WTBTS --- Hillary, et. al.

by LoneWolf in

jw
friends

to all ---about faith.. i posted this some months ago on another board.

the comments then were thoughtful and appreciated.

i'd like to know yours, too.. a brief background first: i first became active in service in december of 1946, and have been disfellowshipped for over 12 years now, not for gross wrongdoing, but because i asked too many questions and wouldn't quit.

teejay

Hello again, LoneWolf,

Interesting thoughts. They, and you, can be summed up easily --

you never were a Witness.

Oh sure, you got baptized, went to the meetings, you had the
appearance of a Dub, just never bought into the whole spiel. I'll
show you what I mean.

You said:
I also see that they have almost completely lost faith in anything,
even the Bible and Jehovah himself. In realizing the fact that they were at
one time, like me, in the congregations and thoroughly believing
all of these things

your following questions/statements serve to lift the mystery. Your question:
Why have I not been as drastically affected as they have?
you yourself answer: I was a loner. I never really cared all that
much what man's opinion was

and

I have been in the doghouse most of my life due to my own
insistence on not doing things because I was "supposed to". I felt that it
was highly important that I do them because I wanted to and decided to.

that type of person is antithetical to a truly loyal Witness. Surely you see
that. Loyal Dubs don't exercise (or even recognize that they have) the right
to pick and choose the way you've done "your whole life." Those that you
see as having problems overcoming their JW experience are those who were
like the Boreans, but only up to a point. (I've always been amused by the
scriptural references to them. Yes they questioned what they heard and that
was the last we ever heard of them!!) The typical, loyal JW, sure enough,
checks and double-checks what they read or hear, but they are most likely
to do so with reference material produced by the speaker/writer. Not
surprisingly, it all jibes, and in those few instances when it doesn't they
"faithfully wait on Jehovah."

You were never so encumbered with Borean thinking. You were a lone
wolf. You believed in God, the Son the Holy Word. You just didn't buy
into the Organizational BS. According to ITS definition, you were
an apostate, a wolf (!!) in sheep's (jw) clothing the whole time. That
made recovery for you a very short step. You never fully adopted the
JW mentality to begin with.

I'm sure you've seen "The Wizard of Oz." Remember Dorothy's
disillusionment when Toto pulled back the curtain and it all of a sudden
dawned on her that the person of her admiration, the Great and Powerful
OZ, was just a frail, error-prone human just like her, with none of the
special gifts she long thought he possessed? The realization that she and her
friends accomplished what they did on their own all along?

Well, from reading your history and getting to know you better, I couldn't
say that you fit Dorothy's pattern of belief. Many others do. A life is bound
to become at least a little shaky when a (small or big) part of it is lived
under a delusion that one day evaporates. (see the movie The
Truman Show)

You said:

There are far too many numbskulls ("superfine apostles") who seem
to have convinced themselves that they are so holy that they have the right,
responsibility, and moral capital to pass judgement on every aspect of other
people's faith… we cannot get baptized - without someone else's
permission. We cannot pioneer - without someone else's permission.
We cannot express ourselves in meeting - without someone else's
permission. We cannot raise questions - without someone else's
permission.

Who is the "someone else" who's permission YOU sought before getting
baptiszed, pioneering, or commenting in meetings? Isn't it the JW version
of the Great and Powerful OZ? Can you saaayyyy "governing body"?

you said:

Likewise, anyone who stands between me and the God that I love in
order to make sure that I do everything just so, is an interloper and meddler.
And I don't give the foggiest damn how holy he thinks he is or how much
his butt weighs.

but you DID care. You appeased the interloper, the meddler. You dropped
your Lone Wolf persona, ever so little, and bought into the dream. Even
lone wolves have to interact with their kind, team up with their fellows, for
self-preservation. So did you, if only for a time.

Peace,
todd
________________________________
Women who seek to be equal with men lack ambition.
____________-- Timothy Leary

6

personal selling vs. field service

by teejay in

jw
friends

i'm taking a class in marketing.

one of the last chapters in.

the textbook discusses personal selling.

teejay

Flowerpetal,

Judge Rutherford was an attorney… after watching many reruns of L.A. Law and the main concern of one of Douglas Brackman, was billable hours… Now take that idea and apply it to JWs going out in service, talking to people and reporting the time they spent. Another form of billable hours, you tink mebbee?

I 'spose it's possible, but since the time spent in service isn't really a cost of
the org., the analogy doesn't quite hold up. IMHO, the WT corp (like most
other corporations) uses numbers as a motivational tool, a means to quantify
what a person is or isn't doing. With it they are able to discern who is
'strong' or 'weak,' which young men in its group is 'reaching out' and
which aren't. Those interested in special merits of distinction and stand out
among their peers can become auxiliary, regular, and special pioneers. In a
round-about way it is a measure of how duped, how much of a believer, an
individual member is, and how 'ready' they are for further 'training.'

=======================================

Julie,

One upside for all ex-Jws is that they/you have been trained in selling and could apply those skills to any product. I have seen some mighty lucrative sales careers. Too bad many leave and don't realize they have these valuable, marketable (and much in demand) skills.

true, that. One of the keys to being a successful salesperson is that one must
have a belief in what they are selling. I know that's not an absolute
necessity, but it goes a long way toward success. And therein lies a major
problem, at least for me, with the sales profession. The catch, as I see it, is
that I doubt that I will ever find ANYTHING that I believe in like I
believed in the Society's product. Reading over the textbook, I found that I
employed most of the best sales techniques: I cared about people and I
believed in what I was selling. I was a believer. I was tailor-made for a cult
religion.

peace,
----------------------------------------------
"Start the day off with a smile,
and get it over with."
_____________ --- W.C. Fields

15

old, somewhere to go, proud, and fearless

by messenger in

jw
friends

i have done some really bad things that involve kittens and ducks but i do not want to tell you my story, unless you ask, then i will have to refuse.

while i need help and consolation, i hate everyone on this board and will attack anyone that replies to this topic.

please do not try to help me or i will kill myself and it will be your fault.. love,.

teejay

hello, messenger... uh, your last name isn't Hall, is it?
but i digress.

i was going to respond to your initial posting but had
to find some tissue paper -- first to wipe the tears of
joy in meeting such a delightful, warm-hearted
individual, then, to wipe the tears of all consuming
peals of laughter after reading the other responses.

sorry for the unfortunate kittens and ducks. i don't
care much for kittens. well.. i like kittens, it's just
that they become cats if they live long enough, and
cats are a little too cavalier and nonchalant for my
taste. i hear dogs are regularly consumed in some
cultures (tastes like chicken), so i guess if you want
to have them for supper, be my guest. too bad you
don't live in S. Florida -- i saw a piece on 60 Minutes
not long ago where feral cats have gotten to be a
real problem. maybe you could re-locate... clear
that problem up right quick!

but i do not want to tell you my story, unless
you ask, then i will have to refuse

dang, and i was jussss about to ask. oh, well. my loss.

please do not try to help me or i will kill myself and it will be your fault

you sure you don't need some help? we all gotta do
what we gotta do, ya know. and you're an albanian
dwarf, huh? i knew a dwarf (or was he a midget?) once.
Stevie was pretty cool. he had an operation to make
his legs longer. it didn't take... he's still way short.

i'm thinking that you have some pent up hostility since
you're a midg... er, dwarf. you think?

anyway, pleased to have such a warm, friendly voice
out there in cyberland. write back.

love,
tj

Documentary Challenges Jesus Image

by teejay in

jw
friends

this sunday on the discovery channel.

don't miss it.. http://news.excite.com/news/ap/010327/16/ent-britain-jesus-documentary

teejay

this Sunday on the Discovery Channel. don't miss it.

http://news.excite.com/news/ap/010327/16/ent-britain-jesus-documentary

106

new, nowhere to turn, ashamed & afraid

by azzazel in

jw
friends

hullo everybody i'm new here, even though i've been lurking now for several months.. i have to say how afraid i am to post, afraid and ashamed but i feel if i dont tell my story, i honestly dont know what may happen to me or my children if they lose me, right now i feel like i've got nowhere left to turn and have my doubts about this place as well.. i know my story will shock you but i cant keep it in any longer.

i am recently disfellowshipped for immorality, the subject of a kingdom hall witch -hunt and subsequent congregational humiliation, .

during the process of the judicial committee meetings and proceedings no consideration was given to my real human circumstances nor to the spirit of survival nor human nature nor that of a mother seeking to protect her children from lack of basic fundamentals such as food, shelter and clothing.

teejay

Evening, Cap'n,

I found azzazel's initial posting very odd from
the very beginning. Certain things didn't come
close to adding up. First, she introduced herself
as one who'd been done wrong by the elders
(gaining immediate sympathy on this board)
but she used the wrong kinds of words. She said
she was afraid of posting (repeatedly), but that
didn't seem to stop her from posting. She said:

I honestly don't know what may happen to me or my children if they lose me, right now I feel like I've got nowhere left to turn … I am recently disfellowshipped for immorality, the subject of a kingdom hall witch -hunt and subsequent congregational humiliation, during the process of the judicial committee meetings and proceedings no consideration was given to my real human circumstances nor to the spirit of survival nor human nature nor that of a mother seeking to protect her children from lack of basic fundamentals such as food, shelter and clothing…

What a mouth full, and what an odd choice of words
for someone supposedly down and out. What really
got my attention was when she said

I'm a single widowed mother with two adorable young children, a boy aged 3 and a girl aged 5, to bring up in this world I am also still quite relatively young and yes , beautiful.

Whoa! But she wasn't done with the sensitivity tip:

my husband died a slow horrible death from cancer … we ended up on social security … I had to stay home and care for him … we married young and I have no real job skills … because of not being able to get to the meetings or out in field service … we were soon labelled as weak ones spiritually and avoided by almost the entire congregation … I don't wish to appear cynical but after our baptism things did seem to change and we were treated a lot more cooly but anyway like I said, I'm afraid to post here, I've seen scapegoating on this board as well, just like at the kh so I'm not sure if things are really all they are cracked up to be here in terms of a support group.

for the third time she admits a fear of posting,
and I swear I thought I heard violins beginning
to play and a lump come to my throat when she said:

but i've been watching, wondering, should i dare to post? will i at least find one sympathetic ear, one friend in this world who will simply listen and not judge

but she killed the mood immediately when she said

I've noticed mommy, tina, farkel and wasasister in particular are major scapegoaters.

and, then

trevor and larc's so called psychological "advice", which i've read on the depression forum, seems to be, well lets say a little thin on the ground to say the least

whuh???

I could go on, but too much of what "she" said didn't ring true. A very odd individual, to say the least. Or one playing a juvenile game.

have a nice one, COMF.

peace

6

personal selling vs. field service

by teejay in

jw
friends

i'm taking a class in marketing.

one of the last chapters in.

the textbook discusses personal selling.

teejay

stephenw20,

how many BILLION dollar nonprofit corps do ya know?

HA! good point.

todd, who knew that he wouldn't be a "newbie" forever... now i can run
the mikes!