by Yesu Kristo Bwana Wangu 55 Replies latest jw experiences
SomeGuyWhoCares:
I don't know where to begin...
It is such a shame that this happened to you.
Deep inside, I always knew the WT's stance on higher education made no sense.
Please accept my heartfelt condolences on your condition.
This is all I can think to say right now.
Just so sorry ...
Sylvia
PS:. Your test scores correspond to those of my daughter who received a free University education, at my insistence. I despise WT for doing this to so many bright minds!
That is some story you have there! I applaud you for posting here to share with us your experience with your personal result from Watchtower education discouragement.
What if's can sting, but your mind is still brilliant. Your body gave out. Steven Hawking is an example of a body that gave out entirely, except his brain. His ability to communicate means he is achieving wondrous ideas beyond most people's comprehension.
You have your brain. Obviously. You still communicate beautifully.
Please continue to post here. I, for one, would appreciate that tremendously.
@Blondie - Education is no proof of high intelligence.
That is very true. Some years ago I heard a comment made about a college educated engineer which described the guy to a tee. "He was educated far beyond the level of his own intelligence."
He was pretty book smart, but he was as dumb as a box of rocks when it came to practical smarts.
@snowbird thank you for the kind words but, please, do not feel bad for me. I may have been 16 but I still could have gone against my parents. It really was my decision. Let's call it like it is...
...let's say I accepted and was then on the receiving end of ostracism by my family and *loving, yet firm, counsel* from the Elders...(we know I wouldn't have been disfellowshipped)
What would have happened? Let's say parents went as far it disown me & kick me out of the house...what would it have mattered?
I owned my own car, never through help from family (ask me sometime about an ironic twist where - at 17 - I gave them a car because they were broke) and I had a FREE dorm room for as long as I was in college...I could have been there for 12 years pursuing a double doctorate and I would have had a free home.
I was was well aware of these and many other details pursuant to "if I decide to 'just do it' there is nothing they can do."
Yes, I was 16 but I was no ordinary 16 year old. I test out at a 'college senior reading level' when I was in 5the grade; my mind has always processed ahead of where it should have. But, I appreciate your kind words.
Lastly, regarding your empathic comments on my health, thank you again. However, and please forgive this but I did warn everyone in my post, there was a Watchtower article (I want to say it was May 15, 2000 pg. 28) 'Jehovah Is Greater Than Our Hearts' and it has an underlying philosophy that I've extracted & try to live by.
"How can any one of us know if we would do any better or any worse if we were to have been raised in, or to have lived under, the exact same finite life (in the shoes of) another person?"
i try try to remind myself that, in a manner of speaking, if I were raised or had experienced any different (say, e.g. To have the circumstances of your daughter) that it wouldn't prove tantamount to a *metaphorical* butterfly effect in which "change one part of my history and everything thereafter is lost". Essentially, it's plausible that, had my past gone differently, I may not be the man I am today from a psychological & intellectual perspective.
Maybe, my physical condition would be WORSE...maybe, "if someone stepped on that butterfly 35 years ago", maybe I wouldn't have survived the first major injury (I fell 23 feet to concrete) or maybe I would have been hit by a drunk driver & died.
It may may not make sense, but it's something I try very hard to remind myself of; theoretically, I am who I am right now - both good & bad - because of, and maybe even in spite of, my past.
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@blondie Thank you as well for the kind reply; your words too are greatly appreciated.
Also, I love that you picked up on the Stephen Hawking reference! As with much of what I say and do in life, I name drop he & John Nash for a reason.
Stephen Hawking...his body gave out but not his mind. This is something that hits me like a sucker punch whenever I think of it; a thought that, quite literally, knocks the wind out of me in one sense while - again, literally, honestly and even as I type this - is a thought that makes me cry...without fail.
Kudos on seeing that!
Thanks again everyone, and yes, I'll be around and posting; but, as I said (and as you see in my reply to Sylvia) there will be times my comments may go against the grain of the typical modus operandi for people who post here.
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P.S. To all: I'm not sure if Simon fixed my original post yet or not (I'll check after I post this) but allow me to apologize for the typos & grammatical errors in my original post. I was having a rough morning, physically speaking, and was in tremendous pain; for some reason my pain medication was taking forever to kick in this morning. That type of pain, a writhing, moaning, 9.5 out of 10 type of pain, makes it too easy to make those mistakes when typing. Nevertheless, I 'bravely pressed on' because I was using the typing of that post as a distraction from the pain while waiting for the medication to finally kick in, which it did, thankfully. But, I'm sorry for the typos (and if there are any in this post I am sorry as well, I'm typing this on my phone).
You are an awesome, brave soul.
I can only invoke the Aaronic Benediction on your behalf.
Hope you are not offended.
Love.
Auntie Sylvia
Just a point, many highly skilled Painters and Decorators are not University educated but are craftsmen of the highest order, of all or non faiths. Decent hard workers who I would be proud to know. Applies to a lot of skilled hands on trades. The men who collect my refuse perform work that is essential.
On JW education, issue is that the wider community is deprived of ALL the potential skills as the 'just round a corner' view of parents would rather equip children as animal minders as against being potential craftsmen and women, or professionals. WT does not want thinkers
@snowbird - There are 2 additional thoughts I meant to include in my reply...
1) I also freely acknowledge that my perspective - on the organizational disparagement of college - could be wrong. That being said, one part of your reply jumped off of the screen when I read it. Specifically, your wording where you said '...never made sense to me.'.
That is precisely the underlying & core paradigm I was both trying to express as well as explain.
If you look at my original post, when reading the later half that focused on the expressed congregational view that college is wrong, as I started breaking down the plausible outcome if college was allowed - or, GASP, encouraged - what effect might that have had AND whether or not the derision of college actually proved to create the exact problem they sought to prevent.
My entire argumentative positioning & postulation in that regard was simply about LOGIC and whether or not it existed on their behalf and - as always - in my philosophy & expressions; be it written or verbal.
Sylvia, please give me your honest opinion, do you feel my comments, arguments & questions made sense?
And...
2) I understand the feeling of 'despising' them over this. However, forgive me, but please allow me to make a comment on that...
...try not to.
Its not not that I disagree with you or that I haven't felt that myself at times. Rather, it's just such a negative emotion and the reality is that - in matters that perpetuate these feelings - the ones we project that anger onto will in fact never feel it nor care. What's more, the antithesis of the desired outcome is actually what happens...
While the object of our furor continues about, unphased, unabated, unaffected, unharmed and uncaring, WE end up being affected rather than those we seek to affect because - if we are not laser focused in our emotion management - the negativity plants our brain firmly in unhappy territory, at which point there are aspects of our daily lives that will be altered without intent or desire.
WE truly end up paying the price rather than those by whom the price should be paid.
@snowbird no offense taken! Trust me, it takes so much to ever actually 'offend' me. If I don't like what I hear, I tell you. If I like it, I tell you. If I am indifferent, it'll show in the way I just move on to a new topic or some other form I'm sure.
People really are offended way to easily - especially these days more than ever - and I don't get it.
When did 'sticks & stones may break my bones' stop being relevant?
Beyond that, if I am honest, the rapid advancement to the enchanted land of 'I am offended' is actually more dangerous for other people to expose themselves to ME lol.
Not only do do I believe honesty, say it like is, put on your big boy underwear, etc. - which offends people easily to begin with - I am also Greek...so basically, picture the most brutally honest person that you know in this world, someone that sometimes finds themselves unintentionally offending people...go ahead, picture them, I'll wait...
...ok, now multiply that person by a factor of 25x100 to the 17th power and then pump them full of Equine Steroids....
...ok, there have ME!
Of course, your comments, arguments, and questions make sense!
It seems the WT would WANT healthier and happier members, which usually commensurate with a high educational level.
I'm from the Black Belt of Alabama - America's Third World - and I've seen first-hand the ravages of not obtaining a good start in life.
The very fact that WT turns a blind eye to these problems makes me despise them.
I don't feel "despise" is too strong a word because there are too many stories like yours in their Organization.
Don't cut them any slack; they are too callous and ruthless to deserve any sympathy.
Blessings.
Sylvia
I only remember one congregation in which a number of persons had university qualifications. This was one of the English-speaking congegations in Papua New Guinea, and in that way, was rather different. In PNG, English is the language of business, government and the professions. As a consequence, this congegation's members were drawn mainly from the educated middle class of Papua New Guinean society (together with a smattering of expatriates, such as myself).
Other than that, all the other congregations I knew about had more than the usual complement of carpet cleaners, pest control technicians,farm hands, timber yard workers, concreters, roofers etc. I was not altogether popular when I entred into an adult apprenticeship at the age of 24. Then, when I undertook a paper in advanced trade studies (in order to get into my preferred field, electrical testing), some positively had the daggers out for me. However, by then I knew enough about what was what to mentally give those individuals the good old "two-fingered salute". That felt bloody good, too!
Winston Churchill is on record as saying "To try is to risk failure. To fail to try is to guarantee it." People as individuals should be free to at least attempt an education. Should they make the attempt, there is, of course, a to risk of failure (whether due personal limitations, lack of application or whatever). Others may realise beforehand that they are never going to be an academic, and thus elect another career choice. (There are many such people about, and it does not mean that they are stupid. My own father was a case in point, and a fool he was not!) Certain other persons may begin a university degree course, but then realise it is not for them, and elect for something else (that happened to a school friend of mine - and once again, a fool he was not, either!). But at least everyone ought to be given that choice to make for themselves.
It should not be left to seven old f@#t$ in New York to make that blanket choice "No!" for everybody. To do so is to fullful what Churchill observed and guarantee an automatic failure in academic acheivement:
- i.e. Failure in results brought about by failure to even begin!
