Relationships

by wovy 39 Replies latest jw experiences

  • outoftheorg
    outoftheorg

    Wovy, take a good look back at the last 2 years of your life. Is this what you want in a relationship??

    Since you are still in this mess, I am beginning to think, you at some level, are enjoying it.

    Take my word for it, this will not change. What you have lived through for two years, will continue.

    This will be the life Wovy will live. Filled with deceit, confusion, religious interferance from a cult and their demands. The insane interferance of her family in your life. Two confused and troubled children to care for and a very troubled dishonest wife.

    If you are enjoying this, hang in there and hang on tight. Because it will only get worse.

    You can leave this all behind now, without too much struggle or grief.

    Imagine the struggle, grief, hatred that will be there a few years from now, when you finally do leave this mess.

    Run Wovy Run. Outoftheorg

  • dedalus
    dedalus

    It's not working. It's never going to work. Leave her. Immediately.

    Dedalus

  • wovy
    wovy

    Thanks for the replies. I have typed quite a few lengthy replies but they get lost when I send, so I’m going to try and just write on Word and answer all the points. I am learning a lot and getting confirmation of what I already thought.

    Maverick, I got your personal message. I WILL look into it. I expect watching someone make such a fool of themselves will annoy a lot people.

    LittleToe, we have a lot in common. I’m from Glasgow. We must be drawn to this stuff. And I moved to get away from religious bigotry! I understand what may win out but it has always been my belief that if she is removed from her family (and this town) she will eventually cave. She does not believe a lot of what is told to her but I also obviously have very little grasp of how she is controlled.

    I know that a good dose of reality might make her see sense. But it’s hard for me to watch anyone get in to debt or struggle financially. I’m not a Florence Nightingale character, running around helping everyone I see, I just have no particular attachment to things that I own. However, that has changed. I told her a few days back that the days of me tossing a few hundred bucks her way when she needs it are gone. This met with a silence, as I am serious. It hasn’t benefited us in anyway at all. It gave her a jolt one way or another. Before I have never told her that I wouldn’t give her money, I had only ever asked her not to ask me and to help herself. Her outgoings are more than her monthly salary. A $4500 tax return of two months ago is gone already. She has no idea of budget as her father, then her husband after that made all the decisions.

    I am considering a transfer to Florida with my company. My plan was to live in Florida, keep my place in Ohio and just fly up the night before work. That may change. A total transfer, and in effect a reverse commute, may be the way to go. I won’t, for the foreseeable future make a total move to Florida, maybe just use the place down there to relax on days off and get away from here. I pay nothing at all for where I live in Ohio and would be a mug to give up that situation completely.

    To those who asked, I should, all going well, be in Ft Myers next Tuesday for about a week.

    Thinking about things the Florida “issue” is the one thing that has kept me going in the past few months. I can see we are at a dead-end and even yesterday, having the talk with her she asked me what I can possibly hope to get from all of this. I really didn’t know. I had forgotten that moving is the one thing that will drive it forward or just end it all.

    I really don’t think she is “playing” me as such. Believe me, I was played in my last relationship. Played like a whole orchestra on the Last Night At The Proms. That is a tale that will amuse you. It has no bearing on JWs, so not on this forum.

    That leads to a question I do want answered. Anyone who is an immigrant to this country or has traveled extensively could offer an opinion. Are American women all liars or is it just in Northern Ohio? I dated a lot of women in Scotland and never a problem. I like you, you like me, let’s give it a go, oh, it didn’t work out, see you. That’s basically how it went. Everybody knows where they stand. A very brief history of American track record is, got married, moved here, wife cheated and wanted divorce within three months. Then dated a girl who asked me out. Date for a few weeks, then tells me to leave her alone or she would call the police!!!! Then her BOYFRIEND of 4 years calls me too!!! Jeez. Then ex-wife wants me back. Lasts 7 months, ends, no big deal. I was already past it. Date girl for three months. Have good time. Tells me she’s going to Africa for three months with ex-boyfriend, who is obviously no longer and “ex”. Date aforementioned “Played me like last night at proms” girl. Swimwear model, ex-Mrs Michigan, getting divorced, after a couple of months tells me she’s pregnant, never heard from again!!!!!!!! I think it suddenly dawned her that I don’t have that much money and this girl was a bit schizoid anyway. Pity her other four sprats. Interestingly she was very “religious” too. Hmmm. Then the current one, running two years now. In all honesty, really, since my wife left me I have had ONE day of total, uninvolved relaxation. The rest is just turmoil. It dawned on me last night that these last three women in particular I have never met their family or friends. I’m like a Masonic boyfriend. “Is that your boyfriend?” “Shhh. It’s a secret.”

    asleif_dufansdottir made the point that she would have left in disgust at how they treated her ex-husband and the like. I totally agree and cannot comprehend this attitude. It was fine for her husband to beat and drink. Her weasel of a father, living across the street, did nothing. Even after he cheated, and cheated again, and cheated again, it was very hard for her to get them to agree she had grounds for divorce. She went ahead anyway, then her “community” fell in line after that. Suddenly they found she did have reason. That now seems a bit weird.

    In a total off topic, let me relay what happened to a friend of hers a few weeks back. You never know, she may even be reading this. Her friend, of course, is getting a divorce. Apparently her husband liked the wings at Hooters just a little too much. So, she has grounds and he’s disfellowshipped. They have been separated for a few months and she goes over to his late at night to pick up the kids. As tends to happen, in a moment of passion, she ends up doing the old in-out. Hooterman then calls her Hall and squeals. She is then brought before the brothers and in a moment of unheard of madness in the Witness community, this girl tells the truth. Her punishment? She is disfellowshipped. My girlfriend, for screwing me while she’s still married, gets a pat on the back and a balloon. Interestingly, my girlfriend has told her friend that it WILL NOT stop them being friends. Right as that is, I thought that was another big no-no.

    Oh, and while I’m on scandal, the girl that had an affair with my girlfriend’s ex, well her sister works at the same place we do!!!! She was a good little witness girl too until she couldn’t explain the 9 month swelling in her stomach. She now too is on the scrap heap. That really is the lowest of the low. When people really need help, like going through a divorce or having a child the JWs are nowhere to be seen. How can they get away with it?

    On another point, I am not enjoying this. It is not the way I want to live my life but it is hard when you have deep feelings for someone. Like I said, soon this will have run its course. It doesn’t seem to be now though.

    One last question I hope someone can answer for me. Kind of threefold question. If she decided she wanted to be with me, like tell her family that we haven’t been dating but she still has feelings and I am “the one”, what is a) the probable scenario, b)best case scenario, c) worst case scenario? Her family know we had a relationship. They know we see each other at work so why couldn’t she take that line and a get a feel for what would come her way. I do really believe this is above all else about saving face in society.

    Thanks again all

    Wovy.

  • wovy
    wovy

    MAVERIK, can you email me please at [email protected] I tried sending a private message and it doesn't work.

    Thanks

    Wovy

  • SpiceItUp
    SpiceItUp

    wovy,

    check your private messages

  • jgnat
    jgnat

    I say ditto to what everyone said already. I guess you have one thing in your favour, if you can call it that, is that this is an elder’s daughter. The normal rules do not apply. My best shot at your questions...

    If she decided she wanted to be with me, like tell her family that we haven’t been dating but she still has feelings and I am “the one”, what is

    a) the probable scenario,

    She will get all the “unequally yoked” scriptures again. She will be told that marrying outside the faith will separate her from Jehovah. Jehovah will not hear her prayers. She will die at Armageddon. You see, in the WT faith there IS NO SUCH THING as casual dating. If she wants to see you, you have to be considered a marriageable partner. But you are not. You are part of the evil, wicked world. She will continue to seesaw between natural desire and fear of death. She will continue to keep you and the rest of her life separate, living the schizophrenic life as she tries to have her cake and eat it too. You will either get fed up with this compromised life and move on, or continue to have your heart dangled about on a bit of string.

    b)best case scenario,

    She bites the bullet and chooses death to be with you. Say nothing to the family. Quick, elope. Come back married. She will go to a Judicial Committee and cry her eyes out. In three months she is reinstated. You attend a few token meetings, and everybody just LOOVES you to death and invites you to a free bible study. You resist. She becomes a pariah (a privileged pariah) in the community, the woman with the “spiritually weak” husband. Look on the bright side. You have lots of time to pursue your own interests while she is at the meetings. You might even be able to sneak the kids away occasionally for some normalcy.

    c) worst case scenario?

    She will convince the family you will make a good witness, and they will campaign together to “convert” you. At least six months of study (I think), a baptism where you vow to be loyal to the society for life, five meetings a week, and you are in. Others may correct me, but I am pretty sure you have to put in some pioneering work before being married. Plan on distributing a LOT of literature. No touchee feelee until the wedding. Problem solved. For her. Misery for you. You already know this is a bunch of crock.

    Q. Are all American women like that?

    A. I am Canadian, but my guess is there are some nice ones out there. I think your problem is not in the picking, but in the leaving. Be choosier on the first date. Insist on meeting the significant people in their life early on. Make sure you are not following a destructive pattern.

    ...and P.S. STOP waving those hundred dollar bills around. They may be insignificant to you, but they may be attracting the wrong kind of "fly".

  • wovy
    wovy

    Hey, can someone help. I am trying to send private messages but keep getting invalid pages. Help please. .

    The posts and such have me thinking. At this stage I would say she and I are done. I don't want to be, she doesn't want to be, but that's probably a fairly common situation in these cases. If I am not to have the chance at least see what a move for us together would be like the I at least have to try something else for my own piece of mind. I am not setting out on some quest to free her but neither am I going to turn away completely. I think we would all agree that she is need of some kind of help or support, unless you are of the opinion she knows EXACTLY what she is doing. I don’t believe that. This is what I am going to attempt to do.

    First of all, taking advice from Mav, I have not called her in the past day and a half. That will be four days by Friday, probably the last time we intentionally work together. A lot I suppose depends on how I handle that. I am in the process right now of clearing my whole house from anything that is hers. I have dumped every photo I have. They are digital anyway, so fairly easy. Next week will be spent in Ft. Meyers, away from all this nonsense, without my telephone hopefully, then maybe a quick jump up to Seattle to see a friend. In the meantime she should hopefully be reading “ Crisis of Conscience” which I bought last night. She is pretty open to reading this stuff, I think. Also, if someone could point me in the right direction, I’d like to get a good printout of the principal behind the book “The Gentile Times Reconsidered.” I have read what it’s about and seems a good “starting point” although I have no expertise in whether this is a good book or not. Also, I am open to suggestions on anything I may present to her. If I was to give you the type of stuff I think she would be open to it be more theological argument than I hate the JWs and they are all a bunch of bastards type stuff. I myself am trying to plough my way through “Apocalypse Delayed” but find it infuriating. How can people believe this stuff? Even just the whole “Look, the world’s going end now. No, I meant now. Nope, one last time, here we go, NOW! Oh, we’re still here. Maybe next time.” What the f#*!

    So, there you have it. “The Plan” is to leave her to her own devices with some food for thought. She knows that her life can’t go on the way it has for the 24 years. Did I mention they were not Witnesses until she was 7? They have had Xmas, and Easter and birthday parties.

    Oh well. Again, thanks for all the advice. It is much appreciated. And in an attempt to inject some humor into this morbidity, check out www.landoverbaptist.org Such is my ignorance of all things religious I can’t make out whether they are serious people or not!

    Wovy

  • Charmed
    Charmed

    Wovy,

    My heart is just aching for you. I was born and raised as a JW and believed it all to be absolute truth until I met and fell in love with a "worldly man." So many of your experiences so far echo mine. When I eventually went to the elders and told them that I had committed fornication with this worldly man, they didn't disfellowship me either. Instead I was "publicly reproved," which meant that they announced that I was reproved from the stage and I was no longer allowed to comment at meetings or hang out with other JW, besides family, outside of meeting time. They also said I had to break up with the love of my life or I would be disfellowshipped. I also had told my lover that I would fight for us, but when it came time to fight and no doubt lose my family, I chickened out. We were split for three months. I still loved him though, and he still loved me. One day he emails me this awful email ranting about how my religion was a cult. I emailed back, defending my religion. That got us talking again, and from there he introduced me to ex-jw sites like this one. I was appalled (sp?)! I was speachless. I was angry. I was scared that I was in love with an apostate. Well, he told me about the mix-ups with the dates, just like you have told your girlfriend. I'm not surprised that it hit her so hard. It's hard to accept that you've been lied to your whole life and that your family is stuck in a false religion that is so controlling, and there's nothing you can do. You feel betrayed and lost. Then, my lover gave me Crisis of Conscience and I read it. It was exactly what I needed. Since it came directly from an ex-member of the governing body, I was able to believe it. Plus, he's doesn't come across as bitter, which was good.

    I hope you all find a way to be happy..whether with her or without her. Just so you know, I am now married to my lover going on two years. My family still hopes that I will come back into the "truth," and they still talk to me, but it's not the same. I feel it's only a matter of time before they shun me completely, but I'm glad to be free. I'm glad to not be spreading lies about God. I'm glad that I can walk around with a clean conscience now.

    Hope things work out for you. You seem like such a nice guy.

    HUGS,

    Charmed

  • nowisee
    nowisee

    it seems like no one in this story has a head that is screwed on straight - at least not the jws whose heads are just screwed by the wts and IT changes ITS mind all the time. it is all shifting sands based on guilt, fear, inner conflicts, ambivalence, denial.

    wovy, i can see that you really care for this girl, but she will never be what you want her to be until she can find who she is and find a way to be true to herself, not to mention her children, her family, her religion and -- YOU.

    often what seems most appealing is what is most challenging. you really must take some time to analyze the dynamics of your relationship. are you trying to WIN? is it about power? who will come out on top? think about this, i don't say it lightly.

    are you making your decisions based on your sex life? then you make your commitment a permanent thing based on something that is temporary.

    you met her while she was still married, essentially she went to you on the rebound, usually unwise because the previous relationship really is not over.

    well i could go on and on about this. but what i recommend is that you take a break from each other. you need to get some distance so that you can see clearly. it is a good thing that you are going to florida. agree not to have any contact (that means no phonecalls) for at least three months during which time you will both commit to finding out what you really want.

    if her heart and mind are truly still with jws you are just simply wasting your time.

    do this for yourself. PLEASE??!

  • wovy
    wovy

    Thanks for the last two posts. Good advice I know I must take. What I have been scared of all along is taking a necessary break. I am very sure in my mind what I need and want from life. Very sure. However, it is very difficult for me to just walk away as I really have almost no one in this country I know. I really do appreciate the help on this site but nothing helps like having a circle of friends. Living in the middle of nowhere since I came here I have befriended two people in four years. This area is awful socially. At work, well believe me, flight attendants are as loony as the stereotype would have you believe. I feel surrounded by people, who hug each other like they haven’t met in 15 years, then will turn round the very next second and call that person a bitch. My work is drama after drama after drama. I mean, look at my situation. We fly together tomorrow morning and are together on the same plane and same hotels for the next four days. I have been shaking all day and tomorrow morning is going to be very hard. I have grown very leery of trusting anyone, which is a real shame. Before I came to this country I had no idea what could make my ex-wife’s mother so depressed and indeed why anyone would waste their money and time on shrinks and pills. I am almost there!

    This isn’t about power. I don’t want to win. I wanted myself, she and her kids and her family to all get on. Due to my ignorance though I had no idea how difficult that is to accomplish. I mentioned earlier in this thread I had called her parents with the hope of turning them around. That was the point where I saw how hard this was going to be but I still left her to her own devices. I still trusted she would make a decision, but now I see the scenario I felt would come out of it was a fantasy. Had I understood just how bizarre this would all turn out I would never have gotten involved.

    I do have hope reading “Charmed” story. I hope that’s how we turn out and I agree a break is needed but it is very difficult to achieve when we work together. I will be off for almost three weeks as of Monday afternoon, then I have to come back and do one more (last?) trip with her. It’s very hard. I really believe she would be a happier person with some distance between her and her family and also her family would “tolerate” us like yours did, but there is that absolute denial from both sides. I should have the book Crisis of Conscience by Monday when I get home. People seem to think that’s a good move. I can only hope that, coupled with the thought of me living where “we” want to live, gives her the kick up the backside she needs.

    What is so hard to take is that I get so many reasons for things not happening. At some points too she says she doesn’t trust me! I really wish that someone would just tell me once and for all we are over and this is the reason why. Instead she tells me she “thinks we are done” then has an obvious change of outlook when I mention I am well forward with a move to Florida. It’s like she’s not hearing that I know we cannot be together in Toledo. I don’t want to leave this though by ever thinking that I should have done this or that. The move to Florida will be my last attempt. If nothing persuades her, then it is time to move on.

    I’m sure I’ve missed a lot of points I had hoped to make. I do feel better when I read your points of view, so, please, no matter how dumb you think I am and no matter what you have to say, please keep it coming.

    Thanks

    Wovy.

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