My wife had her circus dis-assembly last week, and by the time Sunday rolled around she was dragon-ass big time. She really did not want to go another day, she even said so. Yet somehow she forced herself to go once again. After she left that Sunday morning, I picked up her still warm half full cup of coffee and began feeling quite sad for her. After a time that feeling passed as I sipped what was now my own coffee and opened the morning paper. As I was skimming the paper I thought about just how harried and unnatural the JW lifestyle is. And in contrast I thought about just how wonderful it was to sleep-in, to read the paper, or do anything I pleased because after all it’s now my time, and it’s now my life. I don't live to please a book publishing empire anymore!
My wife does this same thing. She'll grudgingly drag herself out of bed, spend an hour getting dressed and putting on makeup, and force herself to go to meetings and then try to induce a little guilt in me and our kid by giving me disapproving looks both on her way out and in after the meeting. I've long since gotten over and have learned to ignore those little guilt trips she tries to induce on me, but, I often feel so very sad for her that she feels so unaturally compelled to attend those meetings all the while pretending in the end that they were so "spiritually refreshing" and "timely".