Well, got this brochure inviting me to a district convention to the public talk. Oddly, the time for the public talk was nowhere on the invite, instead they had a location and the start/end times for all 3 days. Unusual. Somebody local screwed up.
Anyway, I was going to go because this time it's only 15-20 minutes away and I had nothing else planned. A little research showed me the time that should have been on the invite was 11:00am. Well, I went to a party last night and got home by midnight. No alarm, I'll be awake in plenty of time. Well, I think the salmon was undercooked and I wound up awake for several hours in the middle of the night. I wake up and look at the clock and it's 11:02am. So much for the public talk. I'll drop in anyway. There was a drama and the closing talk planned. Cool. I always liked dramas better than talks. And maybe the closing talk will have "new light" that I can laugh at.
I took a little longer than I should have to load my iPhone up with the literature one would bring. JW bible, song book, program. So I missed the start of the drama.
THE DRAMA: WHAT IS TRUE LOVE?
The drama from what I saw was lame. It centered on a couple having marital problems. What exactly I don't know. The husband said the wife bitched too much, the wife said the husband didn't spend enough time with her. An endless catch-22, with effects turning into causes and so on. The more he stays away, the more she bitches, so the more time he avoid her and the more she bitches. And they were about to start on a divorce.
When I walked in, they had cut to a scene of a very old, happily married couple. Reminiscing on their happy marriage and the time the husband almost died while doing missionary work in some 3rd world country.
Cut back to the younger couple. The woman is talking to a friend who is trying to convince her not to go through with it. She points out the bible's view on divorce and that this wouldn't be scriptural grounds for it. Which is always stupid. Can have a marriage full of domestic violence, but can't get a divorce. Furthermore, I don't think people should be bound for life to mistakes they made when they were young and immature. So, bad advice in my opinion. The friend promised a lifetime of regrets if the divorce went ahead, but eventual bliss if she stayed in her marriage. BS!
Now cut to a scene of the husband and a friend playing basaketball. Note that the friend is black. Is that a sterotype, blacks playing basketball? I never really paid attention before, but I assume by all the gesturing that the actors do that these things are all pre-recorded and they're just acting out their parts with gesturing. So this wasn't just this convention, it was pre-recorded as a black voice. So it's a black guy everywhere.
Anyway, these two guys are playing basketball talking about the marriage. The guy stays late at work and also does things like play basketball to avoid going home to his wife who bitches at him because he doesn't spend more time with him. The friend also questions the divorce saying I thought Jehovah's Witnesses didn't get divorced. Now who in real life thinks JWs never divorce? And the worldly friend also tells the guy he was happiest when he was going to meetings regularly. Really? That's hard to believe.
Oh, and by the way, this guy isn't even baptized (maybe the beard clued us into that). Apparently he wasn't ready for the commitment required. More propaganda that it's this big thing. I did it because my parents pressured me and insinuated that if I wasn't baptized by the ambiguos age where I was seen as adult, I could die at Armageddon. I never thought of it as any more committment than what I was already doing. Believing, going to meetings, field service, etc. No more or less than 80% of the congregation was doing to get by. And to be an ex-JW today I have no qualms about ignoring that so called committment.
So they resolve their issues. He is going to pay more attention to her and she is going to be happier and not bitch. And he will get baptised. All is well. I also found that offensive that they have this stereotype that women are bitchy.
I do actually like the fact that they resolved it with solving every day problems that couples face. Not coming up with some wacky solution like starting to pioneer together. Or go to more meetings and read the Bible together. And none of that corny quoting of scriptures for how a husband or wife should act. Just logical love your partner type stuff.
ANNOUNCEMENTS
Well, right off the bat, before attendance or other things. Right away, they announced the contributions. Right on cue. Unlike I remember, there was no reading of the accounts like they normally do on Sundays. Maybe they did before I got there. They usually portray things as being so expensive and if they haven't broke even yet, they announce how much they're in the hole All of which results in a donations boost. Unlike my days, they announced you could also donate by credit card. Sorry, I don't give my credit card info to shady organizations. 37 were baptised out of 4178 there. 13 men, 24 women.
CLOSING TALK: NEVER LET YOUR HEART BECOME TERRIFIED!
I don't know what you think when you hear things like this. When somebody tells me don't be scared, right away I'm expecting something is going to scare me. It's like when somebody starts off a chain of thought by saying "I'm not a racist". Expect something that sounds racist. Or "I don't want you to panic". Right away, I'm starting to panic.
So right now, I'm wondering what's gonna happen that I'll be terrified. Not just scared or worried, but terrified.
So, they go into things like be calm, invisible angels are watching over you. 13 for each one of you. Apparently dividing a myriad angels by how many JWs. Don't fear, blah, blah, blah. David didn't fear Goliath, be like that. To tell the truth, it was mostly just words going by as my mind had trouble focusing.
They released a DVD entitled "Walk by faith, not by sight". Why don't I take them to a busy intersection where we can put that to the test?
The DVD concerns Israelites when the Romans have encircled them and then backed off. Will they follow Jesus' command to flee? Or will they relax and stay? I got a copy I might watch later. I've never seen the production quality of their period dramas and wonder if it's any better than the fake beards and oddly clean costumes of dramas of years past.
I was kind of hoping for a gem like another Sparlock video.
They also announced some victory with taxation in France. Apparently last year, they won their suit against the taxation, and the European Court ordered them to come to a settlement on their own. Apparently the French government ignored it. So, they went back to court and won something like 4 million euroes, plus interest, plus 55,000 in attorney fees. I'm thinking great! That'll help pay Conti and make sure other molested children can get in on some settlement money.
They also said they're quickly approaching the last day of the last days. Gotta slip in that urgency somewhere.
The speaker mentioned all the talks over the weekend about the figurative and literal heart. I couldn't help but think back to when they actually believed the literal heart was the seed of emotions. I remember being ahead of the Society on the truth of that one. I didn't even realize they didn't know this yet. I was shocked when my parents told me to shut up and stop talking about such things. Then an article came out noting that the heart wasn't really the seed of emotions, it was the brain. My brother and I were all over the "I told you so's with our parents". Once again, they finally gave in after being proved wrong without a doubt when a man got an artificial heart and still had emotions.
OTHER IMPRESSIONS
The arena seemed at or close to capacity and they said 4178 was the attendance. They apparently do this again for the next 2 weeks here. The JW website doesn't show dates in the past so I don't know whether this was the first weekend or what other assemblies in nearby states had already happened. But this is a major population area and this was the only English speaking location I see on the calendar for at least 400 miles in every direction, 800 miles or more in some other directions. Unless closer locations already happened, 3 weeks of 4000 people seems a bit light to me for that much territory.
As I looked around, it seemed like I remember. People all looking disinerested, bored, trying to get through it all during the session. No smiles. Everybody clapped where they were supposed to, but no genuine happiness or excitement on their faces (or even detectable happiness for that matter). That changed when it was all over. Then I saw the smiles as people greeted each other. I overhead one guy ask a woman whether she managed to stay awake. She said her head was almost bobbing. And I don't think the exchange was meant as derrogatory at the speakers either.
I also noticed a mostly older crowd. I'm guessing maybe the attrition has happened in the younger crowd and maybe the older ones have given too many years to quit at this point.
When I got to the parking garage, it was jammed. So I decided to take a walk around the building to see if any apostates were protesting or handing out literature. Maybe I could engage them and get others to listen in. Alas, no luck. From what I used to remember, it was the last day they targeted as we were leaving, but maybe not here. Maybe there are no protests or apostates trying to convert people here.
When I came back to the garage, an ambulance was outside and there was a guy laying on his back with his shoes off right in the middle of the entranceway. I hope he will be alright. A lot of them seemed out of shape.
Another ex-JW I grew up with had e-mailed me a photo of his invite, suggesting there might be some cute girls there at the very least. And there were some, but all too young for a guy in his 40's. I don't know why, but there seemed like so many of them that were out of shape as they grew older. I'm in a running club and we have many people who defy age. We also have some large people who run and how they stay so large is a mystery to me. Not that I mingled that much, but I maybe saw one attractive woman who appeared to be there solo in my age group. I know, looks shouldn't be the only criteria.
Now I decided long ago that I was happy I'd never gotten seriously involved with a JW girl and wouldn't want to start now. Maybe if she were an apostate too, maybe we'd have common ground.
I did notice techonogy in use. I saw one woman holding up her ipad filming the drama. Maybe other parts too. Strike one for iPhones and iPads. Lousy for those types of movies if you can't mount them on a tripod. I also saw somebody with a smart phone doing the same. At least a couple people had technology.
For the rest of them, I was shocked. I woke up this morning and started assembling what I'd need. It's not like I'm a practicing JW doing this several times a week either. Haven't any of them gotten onboard to technology? I remember carrying a bible and songbook and sometimes a notebook or a Watchtower. I can see a notebook where writing is still faster than typing. But for the other things, why would you carry all that around? Every time they mention a scripture, there is a chorus of page flipping. 3 taps and a couple of scrolls and I'm there way before the page flipping has stopped. It might have been the first time I was so fast that I was always there before the speaker started reading on every verse.
Now the songbook in PDF was a bit difficult on an iPhone. A words-only song book might work better. And why in the world do they still publish song books with music? When I was a kid we had a piano player. It was mother of the ex-JW friend who e-mailed me the photo of his invite. But later it was replaced by records, then CDs and I'm sure by now, MP3s. There's no need for somebody to read sheet music. Why is it still there for the average attendee's book? OK, publish a special edition with music for those times, well, actually I can't imagine what "those times" might be. I doubt halls have pianos anymore. But give everybody else the lyrics only.
Oh, funny thing. On my first trip to the parking garage, I saw a guy with a green bible. I remember talks warning us about those people. That they were probably just posers not real JWs. Or people who had been absent for years. But, he did have the new song book. Maybe he's just going old school. I would have asked him about that to see if he were somebody like me, but I figured with his new song book, maybe that wasn't the case.
Anyway, home now, beer in hand. I hope I don't have JW nightmares tonight.