by Octavia 30 Replies latest jw friends
I never once wrote my husband's talks and I never knew any elder's wives who owned up to writing their husband's talks.
At any rate, it was never the material that would captivate the audience, it was usually the speaker's charisma - my ex used to 'move' the audience - bah!!!! Did nothing for me.
~Beck~
2. one would chase everyone out of the bathrooms and would stand at the sink to make sure no one used more than one papertowel.(she tried that once with me so i started bringing my own paper towels and keeping them under the sink..irked her to no end)
Candidly -
You were - and still are - such a HOOT!!!
LOL I love it!
-Aude.
You don't get to be an elder by being a total boob.
Ironically, it happens. If you are not a total boob before you are made an elder, you become one shortly after. Do I sound a little bitter? I am. My sleazy, abusing, deceitful, no good dad was an elder for the better part of my childhood, and the other elder cronies were not much better. He was made an elder when he shouldn't have been and remained one for FAR too long!
It might be easy to believe they're all stupid, faceless fools, but it does take SOME intelligence to rise in ANY organization, no matter what it is.
No, it really doesn't. It takes saying the right things to right people, and being related to the right people. I am specifically refering to the WT organization when I say that, but it can be applied to a lot of organizations.
My dad was a brilliant speaker and writer... and as a result a good Elder. I'd like to think I got some of my writing talent from him.
Luckily, I take after my mom and can write pretty well AND pronounce words.
Also, I have to say this to everyone ... while you think it may be rare for wives to write talks for their elder husbands, it may also happen more frequently than you realize. No one knew that my mother stayed home from service to get up his talk because he waited until the last minute and didn't do it. No one knew she wrote most of his public Sunday talks for him. I don't think it is something that would necessarily be known to even the most keen observer.
By the way ... all this happened in the deep East Texas piney woods. Anyone else care to vouch for the level of stupidity found in those parts? (Particularly the elder bodies.)
Candidly sure is a hoot! What a cool riot that girl is.
About the talk writing, my ex was a very good, smooth, polished speaker. Very organized person, with excellent recall. I couldn't have even attempted to write his talks.
No heart, but a very good speaker. Lol.
I like that thought.
But at least in my day, every Public Address came as a preprinted outline (with every scripture they wanted used to support the topic), and sent out to the congregations from Brooklyn HQ for distribution to those men the elders selected to give "talks". Some speakers were definitely better than others, but no one was alowed to make up their own lecture.
It would be interesting to know how The Society keeps control of the content of the PA's today..
although I can think of perhaps one elder who might have had his wife help him..
I would say the majority I knew, did not.. they were diligent in doing their own parts..
Well, I personally was never an elder's wife...I just heard that juicy tid-bit in a moment of JW-bashing w/ my lover... but I sure as hell know that I could'a wrote better talks than most of those lovely "servants" on the platform... I feel that my silly little "sister talks" had more content than alot of public addresses I've heard...
anymore the public talks are just scripts. the wtbs caught on that a lot of men couldnt get a talk up with just an outline.
I helped my husband with his very first talk on the TMS...how to use an outline and how to time out the segments. After that he was on his own. It even got to the point he wouldn't practice with me as his audience. He did appreciate any "tips" because he recognized that I was a good speaker. I did type his outlines for him though to save him time. He kept them online and tweaked them depending on the audience or to refresh the material.
I do know some elders who had their wives write and type their talks. Some probably should have had help. I know brothers who did the talks for other brothers who had limited writing and speaking skills. They were that desperate for brothers to be MS. I know other sisters who would listen to the talks and give some suggestions, requested by their husbands. I know younger brothers without fathers who had help from their mothers in the beginning but eventually progressed to doing it on their own.
Few brothers became better speakers if they did not eventually stop having others help them. I have been a tutor for years and helped people write better papers and give better speeches, but these were always in their own voice; just like a person who teaches singing.
Blondie
That must be why they always clapped so loud for their husbands! Maybe in the future if we're at a meeting and hear a really good talk, we should go up to the wife of the speaker and tell her "I really enjoyed the talk"
... ...
you never know who did the job (when you have to deal with fakers) but that's good for the wives as they actually should know their values !
