Having previously married into a Jewish family (3 of my kids are Jewish by heritage not belief) I guess I always have some of the "never forget" always at the ready in my subconscious.
TerryWalstrom
JoinedPosts by TerryWalstrom
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6
The "Musn't Be Sung" song
by TerryWalstrom inthe musn't be sung song.
yes, rachel was tossed from the birthday party.
not awfully shocking.
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6
The "Musn't Be Sung" song
by TerryWalstrom inthe musn't be sung song.
yes, rachel was tossed from the birthday party.
not awfully shocking.
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TerryWalstrom
I don't know that this thing I've written is anything someone would want to read--considering the darkness you've mentioned. I posted it because I didn't know what else to do with it.
I thought maybe somebody else had a clue. I sure don't. :) -
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The "Musn't Be Sung" song
by TerryWalstrom inthe musn't be sung song.
yes, rachel was tossed from the birthday party.
not awfully shocking.
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TerryWalstrom
Writing for me is a peculiar thing--not altogether self-directed. The above story started off on a whim with a firm (and abandoned) intention to be light-hearted and heading in the opposite direction. Well, it took the wheel and drove the other way! I became the passenger.
I have no idea where it came from or why it wanted to be written. But--there it is.
There it is. -
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The "Musn't Be Sung" song
by TerryWalstrom inthe musn't be sung song.
yes, rachel was tossed from the birthday party.
not awfully shocking.
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TerryWalstrom
"It was particularly touching to listen to a whole repertory of Yiddish folk ballads, some of which were probably brought to the camp by Jewish parachutists from regions in the interior of the Soviet Union.
One night, while awaiting a parachute drop of Soviet weapons and equipment at an improvised airfield in the forests of Rudniki, this writer met partisans from the Vilna ghetto and, for the first time, heard them sing Zog nit keynmol az du geyst dem letstn veg (Never say that you have reached the final road). This song, by the Vilna poet and underground fighter Hirsh Glik, later became the general anthem of the Jewish partisans." -
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The "Musn't Be Sung" song
by TerryWalstrom inthe musn't be sung song.
yes, rachel was tossed from the birthday party.
not awfully shocking.
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TerryWalstrom
The MUSN'T BE SUNG song
Yes, Rachel was tossed from the birthday party. Not awfully shocking. After all, she began singing the Mustn’t Be Sung song. I’m serious. What is wrong with her?
She won’t be able to go anywhere after this. Not anytime soon.
Who doesn’t remember the incident? (I mean, of course, the first incident?)
Let’s not go into that and spoil our day.Gretchen Reinhardt's birthday party was a tremendous success. (Except for Rachel).
The garden behind her house is the envy of the neighborhood mothers. All children love that hedgerow Maze. Reinhardt parties are the best attended and they find so many silly excuses for throwing them, too.Naturally, there’s gossip.
The Reinhardt family gets way too much attention. In my humble opinion.
That Maze--nobody else has anything to compete.
The Goldman’s have a terrific pool and trampoline. Who cares anymore?
Kurt and Hannah’s backyard badminton tourney was a flop, too.
No, there’s only the Maze as far as school kids and parties and having a good time.If you’re throwing a party--guess what? So are the Reinhardt's and suddenly nobody comes to your party.
Coincidence?
Mama says, “No way!”I overhead Mrs. Schultz telling my mom the other day that the Maze cost the Reinhardt's a quarter of a million!
Insane? “Immoral” is a better word for it.There are plenty of hungry people in the world.
And charities go begging. I’m just saying…After the funeral last year, after the Silverman’s moved away and Rolf was arrested for singing that damn song--- it was the Reinhardt's Maze that took everybody’s mind off the incident.
The first incident.
So, there’s that.No, the second incident should have been more than enough warning.
(What in God’s name is wrong with Rachel?)
I cried my eyes out. She’s my very best friend.
That damn song!Mama told me how lucky I am I hadn’t heard it.
She frightened me--the way she said it--her eyes were all red and she was shaking.
I felt like throwing up I was so scared.
How is singing a song a bad thing?The thing is--once you hear it you can’t stop thinking about it. No matter what you do--it comes back and you start trying to get rid of it--like hiccups. You try all the usual remedies. They don’t work.
Mama said:
“If you have a contagious disease you wouldn’t go to a party, would you? You wouldn’t want your friends to get sick--and die--would you?”
I tell you what--mom screaming those questions at me has given me the bad dreams. (Naked people screaming and dying.)I talked to Anna last night on the phone. She’s having the same kind of dreams.
Isn’t it weird?
But then--there’s the Maze. It solves everything.
It’s like having a cure for hiccups!What would I do? I know why you’re asking.
I mean--IF I accidentally heard it. That song.I guess I’m scared because parents tell you things that aren’t true...sometimes.
When Mia, our cat, stays out too long Mama shakes a box of kitty treats to lure Mia back inside. Except when she runs out of kitty treats--She shakes a box of anything else.
Poor hungry Mia is tricked. She trusts Mama.
She just comes running in expecting to be fed. Nope--gotcha dumb beast!
A lie is a lie.I’m no angel. I lie sometimes.
I’m not evil. I’m scared.
I wouldn’t dare lie to Mama about most things.
But this is different.
How can I possibly explain why Rachel taught me the song?
She’d fall apart if she knew I climb into my closet and cover my head with pillows and sing:
"Never Say That You Have Reached the Final Road."Rachel never lied to me. Mama has--but never Rachel.
Rachel whispered to me that the man who built the Reinhardt's Maze is an evil man.
He was heard saying he’s building showers--strange showers, for our Leader.
He was laughing when he said it.“Die Juden gehen rein, aber es ist Deutschland, das gereinigt wird.”
"The Jews go in to shower, but it is Germany which is cleansed."
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This song, by the Vilna poet and underground fighter Hirsh Glik, later became the general anthem of the Jewish partisans." -
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Live 'as though' God is true and goodness is real? Why? Why not?
by TerryWalstrom inin the long run, goodness can be as real as we care to live it.
and if we live 'as though' god were as real as we once believed--how can we go wrong?let us think about this...what would happen if we were given a large amount of cash and we spent it on gifts for our loved ones but-- a knock at the door and the police are here!
that cash was counterfeit and those gifts must be confiscated...what then?good intentions are only that--intentions-- if there is no "there" there.when we were each others' brothers and sisters our love was real but the currency was counterfeit.
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TerryWalstrom
The antidote to false religion?
Many of us abandon the search altogether after a few years deep research into every jot and tiddle.
Forty thousand denominations in Christianity and no place to hang our hat? Yeah, fraid so. All those tentacles lead to just one damn octopus.
But I'm haunted by the idea of "acting as though"life has 'meaning'--how does that differ from life actually having meaning?
Maybe no difference at all in such distinctions-- as long as we're not spending more counterfeit cash.
When you do good for somebody the good is done.
Giving a bum a meal may be naive or maybe not--but feeding a hungry person is never wrong.
See the difference? I hope I do. A distinction without a difference is possible.
When we knocked on doors, passed out books and magazines, held 'Bible studies' we were writing bad checks and gifting counterfeit cash--mind you--will all the best intentions.
Don't we feel used? You bet!
In politics, the term is "useful idiot."
Should we aspire to go from being a useful idiot to becoming a reactionary "useless" one?
There is evil in false goodness--but--is there goodness in fake evil?
Oh my aching head! -
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Live 'as though' God is true and goodness is real? Why? Why not?
by TerryWalstrom inin the long run, goodness can be as real as we care to live it.
and if we live 'as though' god were as real as we once believed--how can we go wrong?let us think about this...what would happen if we were given a large amount of cash and we spent it on gifts for our loved ones but-- a knock at the door and the police are here!
that cash was counterfeit and those gifts must be confiscated...what then?good intentions are only that--intentions-- if there is no "there" there.when we were each others' brothers and sisters our love was real but the currency was counterfeit.
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TerryWalstrom
We do have to take care of ourselves. Too young I rushed out willy nilly to 'save the world' for our Watchtower overlords and yet there was nobody there to save me.
So much of 'spiritual help' is noise and ideology; aren't we wasting our reservoir of interior goodness on THAT instead of more practical concern for the physical welfare and well-being?
I would say, "yes." -
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Live 'as though' God is true and goodness is real? Why? Why not?
by TerryWalstrom inin the long run, goodness can be as real as we care to live it.
and if we live 'as though' god were as real as we once believed--how can we go wrong?let us think about this...what would happen if we were given a large amount of cash and we spent it on gifts for our loved ones but-- a knock at the door and the police are here!
that cash was counterfeit and those gifts must be confiscated...what then?good intentions are only that--intentions-- if there is no "there" there.when we were each others' brothers and sisters our love was real but the currency was counterfeit.
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TerryWalstrom
In the long run, goodness can be as real as we care to live it.
And if we live 'as though' God were as real as we once believed--how can we go wrong?
Let us think about this...
What would happen if we were given a large amount of cash and we spent it on gifts for our loved ones but-- a knock at the door and the police are here!
That cash was counterfeit and those gifts must be confiscated...what then?
Good intentions are only that--intentions-- if there is no "there" there.
When we were each others' Brothers and Sisters our love was real but the currency was counterfeit. Yes, Jehovah's check bounced.
Our gifts to each other were 'real' but so easily confiscated as, one by one, we fell away seeing the nothingness upon which our world was founded. Did our checks bounce too?
Disheartened? Yes! Who can love without heart?
Let's go deeper. Let's get crazy...
Conversely, in a case of Murder, there are degrees of guilt--so, why not in love?
Jehovah's 'love' motivated us to love.
Then, like a hammer-shattered plaster statue, He was gone.
Our lives, embodied in those pieces littering the floor of daily life, fell apart.
No ground beneath our feet, we plummeted toward no gravity--toward nothing--screaming "FREEDOM"all the way to--where?
Here. Now. Today.
All those prayers--to whom did we pray? Dare I ask: Does it really matter?
In the long run, goodness can be as real as we care to live it.
And if we live 'as though' God were as real as we once believed--how can we go wrong?
You see--NOW WE KNOW what isn't true...so...
we are truly free to love based on freedom to do so without false sentiment fostered in deceit.
We can live as though all those things we loved are true.
What things?
First, we are all each others' Brothers and Sisters. Is it possible?
Today, we look out on our planet, in our world and see discord, anger, divisions and we no longer have that PARADISE fallback, get-out-of-jail-free card Jehovah gave us. We can't hide behind Armageddon. We're no longer in that club with the slogan above the door: "The Only True Religion."
Can we claim Brotherhood with those with political beliefs--as false as our religion before our fall from 'grace'? Are we too indoctrinated and doctrinaire? Still?
Have we traded false religion for another captivity: ideology?
Are we recidivists, addicts, doomed perforce to circle the drain of "I'm right--you're wrong"?
I ask one last time the question only you can answer for yourself:
In the long run, goodness can be as real as we care to live it.
And if we live 'as though' God were as real as we once believed--how can we go wrong?
Before you answer that--one more question: What's the alternative? -
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TV TRAILER: ‘Leah Remini: Scientology and the Aftermath: The Jehovah’s Witnesses' Two Hour Special Event - A&E
by MaybeSo intv trailer: ‘leah remini: scientology and the aftermath: the jehovah’s witnesses' two hour special event - a&e, 9pm et/pt, tues, nov 13, 2018. https://youtu.be/yzdege5im90.
didn't see a post about it yet.
will you be tuning in?
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TerryWalstrom
Look at it this way: there has always been rape--but--look how the #MeToo movement has taken over the world for curiosity and outrage.
Scientology and Jehovah's Witnesses are two different predatory beasts. L.Ron Hubbard and J.F. Rutherford are pretty well matched for the Coo-coo nest award. To OUTSIDERS, this is fascinating.
Two different car wrecks on the side of the same rode.
There is plenty of blood and gore for all eyes watching.
Lloyd and Mike Rinder are two sides of the same coin, too.
Lloyd is an explicator extraordinaire. Like Mike Rinder, he has a dispassionate exterior presentation. He's disarming and methodical.
Stories of shunning and child abuse and deaths of babies from denied medical treatment are more than enough to glue an audience to their TV set. The particulars of belief--it is true--is not better or worse than any ridiculous belief set--but don't underestimate the novelty aspect.
(The other guy's beliefs are always scandalous).
I think many of us former Dubs are simply numb to the outrageous history and practices of our former cult religion. We are so accustomed to the daily stories of internal misery and disaffection we simply nod casually and whisper, "Of course."
Yes, we are boiled frogs if we've been around for years and years on these discussions and autobiographies of TTATT.
Even the most egregious aspects of lock-step behavior can normalize and that background drone of woe goes away after many years. -
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My Evening in Paris with the Mysterious Veronica
by TerryWalstrom in(recently i spent 18 days in europe in first, london, then paris, and last of all, madrid.
i was quite bedazzled by paris.
on my first night there, after a long day of sightseeing, i sat down and wrote this.).
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