--------------------- INTERMISSION --------------------
To those who might have read through my story to this point, I qualify all the above by declaring that, currently, my spirituality is in a state of flux. I don't doubt this is true of many of us who still have an intransigent core of JWism remaining.
Critical thinking is new to me. I am free - no longer fearing rebuke nor censure - to evaluate the offerings of philosophers, atheists and many, many other individuals outside the hermetically-sealed bubble of the Jehovah's Witness experience. I welcome the "fresh air" carried by the winds of change, whether those "winds," it is hoped, be gentle breezes for us individually or destroying tempests within totalitarian religious regimes.
The figurative walls of the Watch Tower have crumbled before me; however, one question for me yet remains: who were these people who called themselves the "anointed" and so convinced me that they were the purveyors of TRUTH and EVERLASTING LIFE?
I feel that my search is far from over ...