I went to the KH a couple of weeks ago. For a funeral. I haven't been in a KH, except for funerals, for several years. This one caused more trepidation than earlier funerals, because this was a funeral of one of my peer group growing up. There were bound to be a lot of people I've known forever there, and some I was quite close to.
The last funeral before this one wasn't totally over the top JW propaganda. That speaker did try to spend some actual time covering the life and times of the deceased. But so much for that being a new trend. This one went straight back to the WT playbook. Three, count em, three (and I did, cause it was printed on the handout given out as we came in) paragraphs about the life and times of the deceased. The final 45 minutes was one excruciatingly long propaganda commercial for WT doctrines, and guilt tripping dubs into doing more (because, hey, you could be next and then where would you be if you died and weren't active in WT service)
Now this person who was dead wasn't the model JW in later years. Kind of a 'fringe' dub. Yet during this talk, the speaker kept going on about how dedicated this guy was, and how he 'supported' his wife and the congregation (gave her a car to drive was about it). Showed up at occasional meetings and networked some business deals. As the speaker gushed and gushed about this guy, I couldn't help but remember that this speaker was the same a-hole elder who dogmatically declared to me that a DFd family member who committed suicide had no chance of resurrection in the New System. And here he stands, carrying on about how great this quasi-dub was. That part of the funeral pissed me off the most.
Afterwards I got love bombed back to the stone age...i.e. my old JW days. I saw people I havent seen in years, and they all acted like it was old times. Only one self righteous dub tried to 'encourage' me. He hasn't seen me in years, doesn't even live in the state, and he assumed (because of the beard, I reckon, and maybe because I wasn't wearing an off-the-rack cheap polyester suit) that I just had to be 'inactive'. But other than that, everyone was sooo nice and happy to see me. It really was like good ole days (if you can discount the WT part).
If one wasn't completely positive that WT doctrine is complete dog dookie, it would have gone a long way to spark them back into 'activity'. or at least show up for a few meetings, until the old thumbscrews were applied anyway. But fortunately for me, while I thought it was great to see old friends, I know that it was superficial, and their version of 'true friendship' relies on you being an active robot for the WTS. The weird thing is that I don't dislike many of them, I just don't agree with the belief system anymore. I respect their right to their beliefs (which isn't the same as respecting the beliefs), and if they don't harass me, I won't criticize their beliefs or harass them for being gullible. If we only see each other on rare occasions and it was as pleasant as our impromptu reunion, then I can live with that.