Posts by Open mind

Flipper, my folks were the mirror image of yours. My Dad would occasionally let a "shit" or "damn" fly after the night of the canine land mine. My elderly JW mom however, has NEVER uttered a cuss word in my presence. I wonder if she's ever said one. She's pretty guilt-driven, so I wouldn't be surprised if she never has.

om

17

Do you remember the first time your Mom or Dad cussed?

by Open mind in

jw
friends

i do.. .

how about you?.

om.

Open mind

OK, here's the story of the first time I heard my Elder Dad cuss.

I was about 10 years old and our JW family of 5, plus an elderly JW relative, were all crammed in the car and driving across town to the Thursday night School & Service Mtng. It was a warm summer night and we were running late, as usual. A very familiar, unpleasant smell began to tickle our nostrils. Just before hopping in the car, one of us had inadvertently activated a very potent canine land mine. My tired-from-work, stressed-out-over-a-meeting-part Dad, was particularly animated in voicing his displeasure over this rude olfactory assault. The smell got so bad that, even though we were already going to miss the opening prayer (horrors!), Dad pulled over so that the culprit could be identified and the front lawn of an auto repair shop could be put to good use in removing the malodorous mousse.

What a sight we must have been. Six cult members in our nerd uniforms all standing on the lawn of the car repair shop and looking under our shoes. One of my brothers said he thought it "might" have been him.

Dad: "Did you get it ALL off?"

Brother: "Yeah."

We all pile back in and the smell is right back at us.

Dad looks down at the inside of his right shoe.....

"AH SHIIIIIIIITTT!!!"

All jaws dropped as those words were indelibly etched onto my 10-year-old memory.

My God-like Dad became just a little bit more human that night.

Good times.

om

17

Do you remember the first time your Mom or Dad cussed?

by Open mind in

jw
friends

i do.. .

how about you?.

om.

Open mind

I do.

How about you?

om

5

Good Luck Jaguarbass!

by jamiebowers in

jw
friends

i'm 59 years old i'll be having surgery on friday for a torn rotator cuff that happened breaking up a jail fight.. http://www.jehovahs-witness.net/jw/friends/214657/1/fellas-those-of-you-whore-married-with-or-without-kids-do-you-still-have-time-to-read-books-pursue-hobbies-etc.

wishing you a speedy recovery!.

.

Open mind

Hey there JaguarBass,

If I ever have shoulder surgery again there are two things I will get first. (Maybe it's not too late for you.)

1. A la-z-boy type recliner (if you don't already have one). WAY better than trying to get comfortable with pillows on a bed or couch.

2. A shoulder cuff device that envelopes your entire shoulder. It has tubes connected to a sump pump and an ice chest that circulates ice water for as long as you need it. WAY, WAY better pain relief than pills alone and much healthier too.

If you can't get that stuff, (I didn't) you'll still do fine. I think you're probably tougher than me.

All the best,

om

9

Sitting poolside and guilt-free.

by Open mind in

jw
friends

it was a couple years ago that my wife awakened to the true nature of jwism.

today is our first overnighter (sans kids).

at home this morning we called in to the k hall, listened to about 2 minutes of the public talk, had a couple good laughs and continued with a leisurely brunch.

Open mind

Pam's Girl: Thanks!!

Intel: Congratulations on your new life.

ABibleStudent: "I would rather hear good stories than heart-breaking ones."

Thanks for the thumbs up.

OTWO: Thanks for the partial thumbs up.

We stay somewhat up-to-date on meeting info for the benefit of extended JW family. There is one family in particular that we have a fair amount of hope in possibly reaching as they are VERY liberal (by JW standards) and somewhat "rebellious" towards "Theocratic Direction". If we become known as completely inactive and possibly apostate, we'll likely lose our audience and relationship with them. If our limited exposure to JWism was threatening our sanity or happiness, we'd cut if off completely.

Nancy Drew: "We,ve done more in the last year than we did in the last 20 yrs."

That's the spirit!

om

9

Sitting poolside and guilt-free.

by Open mind in

jw
friends

it was a couple years ago that my wife awakened to the true nature of jwism.

today is our first overnighter (sans kids).

at home this morning we called in to the k hall, listened to about 2 minutes of the public talk, had a couple good laughs and continued with a leisurely brunch.

Open mind

Room Service breakfast with a view? Yes.

Daily Text to go with it? No.

*Clink our coffee cups together to keep Elders away*

om

9

Sitting poolside and guilt-free.

by Open mind in

jw
friends

it was a couple years ago that my wife awakened to the true nature of jwism.

today is our first overnighter (sans kids).

at home this morning we called in to the k hall, listened to about 2 minutes of the public talk, had a couple good laughs and continued with a leisurely brunch.

Open mind

It was a couple years ago that my wife awakened to the true nature of JWism. Today is our first overnighter (sans kids). At home this morning we called in to the K Hall, listened to about 2 minutes of the public talk, had a couple good laughs and continued with a leisurely brunch.

Then we took off to one of our favorite local hideaways to spend the night.

No kids. (We love them dearly and they know it.)

No JWs.

Just us.

Life post-JW can be VERY, VERY good.

om

p.s. I wrestled with whether or not to share this when there's so many painful stories on JWN. But I thought it might be good, particularly for the lurkers, to know that there can be a light at the end of post-JW tunnel that isn't a TRAIN.

27

Post your jokes here

by dm6 in

hopefully this will get a good response because i love jokes, especially ones about the wt or jw's!.

ill start it off.. .

how do we know there are no female angels in heaven?.

Open mind

Q: Why are these called the "LAST days?"

v

A: Because they LAST & LAST & LAST & LAST.......

16

New JW shows up at my wife's work.....

by Open mind in

jw
friends

so my wife shows up for work and finds out that a self-employed consultant is going to be on site for a few days.

she also finds out through the jw grapevine that the consultant is a jw.

(my wife and i are faders, but still attend the occasional meeting.

Open mind

The more detailed analyses of Momma-Tossed-Me, Flipper and steve2 make quite a bit of sense, but at the end of the day, we're all just speculating here.

Giving the consultant the benefit of the doubt, PaintedToeNail's take might be right on the money:

"Maybe the consultant JW felt she didn't have anything really in common with Open Mind's wife and wasn't comfortable just making chit-chat."

This is probably best-case-scenario for the consultant and JWs in general. And if it's true, then it was a very unremarkable situation on the whole. Except for the last bit. That's the part that demonstrates the power of the JW religion.

If the consultant & my wife had both been Baptists or had formerly attended the same school and my wife said "Oh, you went to XYZ High School? So did I." If the consultant was still feeling non-chatty, she could say "That's nice. Small world." and continued to not pursue a conversation. But if a JW finds out that a recently-met stranger is a fellow JW, there's a very strong expectation that at least a few more sentences of dialogue MUST take place, IMO.

Picture this dialogue:

My wife: "Oh, I just heard that you're a Sister!! I'm a Witness too!"

Consultant: "That's nice. Small world." *walks away*

If the consultant did that, she'd be sending up big red flags that something's not quite right in her JW world.

In retrospect, my wife used the power of the cult to mess with this lady. And it worked. Yes, it was petty and manipulative.

(And it was a little bit of fun. )

The more detailed analyses of Momma-Tossed-Me, Flipper and steve2 make quite a bit of sense as well, but at the end of the day, we're all just speculating here.

Cheers,

om