It is that time of year again when all of the 'happy' people travel great distances to meet as a 'united brotherhood.' gaaagggg
Has anyone here been yet this year? I wanted to know if there was going to be a part that I should record for safekeeping. It's funny, over the last few years, I have been more mentally alert to the program listening for those key words --- Apostates, The Internet, and Blood Transfusions. I always snap out of my quasi-trance when one of those words is mentioned.
This year I bought a bunch of goodies to eat during the program. And to think my mother always said we could not eat during the assembly. BAH! I cannot wait for Sunday afternoon around 3:30........
Went last week. The DC is word for word exactly the same as it has been the last 25+ years. Nothing new. I have never seen so many people fall asleep in the afternoon. They didn't seem to rail on entertainment, the internet, or recreation as much. There was the usual emphasis on pioneering, how close the end is (really! it's just around the corner!) Interestingly, the baptism numbers were half of what they should have been. (This convention should have had about 100, there were only 62. Of course, 75% of these were children/teenagers of JW's - not people found in the door to door work.
A point I found interesting: There was a talk about upbuilding conversation. Speaker said we should not talk so much about our jobs, sports or movies. We should talk about WT articles we've read - but to do so in a humble way so we don't come off as a know-it-all.
I'd sooner have root canal work sans anethesia than sit through another of these!
The speaker hit on an intersting point re ``upbuilding conversation." I've often remarked to my wife that as soon as the ``amen'' closes a meeting, the post-meeting chatter invariably turns to anything but the topics just discussed, or any spiritually-based subject..... sports, shopping, movies, etc., etc. are the usual interests. The one exception is just after a dfing is announced.
If anyone had come up to me after the meeting and said "oooh wasn't that a lovely point in the Watchtower study this afternoon" I'd think they'd gone nuts. As soon as the meeting is over the conversation is about football, cars, money, work and sex.
Dad used to take his binoculars to the assembly to watch the drama. I just used them to scan the audience for the fittest sisters. Hours of fun!
