George Benson in Concert - Cardiff, UK

[Pudgy]

I remember as if it were yesterday reading a science fiction short story by Eric Frank Russell “And Then there Were None”, circa 1955, where a character was walking down a sidewalk, and the people coming his way waved and smiled with the greeting “MYOB!”, without explanation to the reader what that meant. Later on it was explained that the entire society agreed with this, and it meant “… mind your own business!”

It made sense to me then, and now.

I have no idea what the rest of the story was about, but I remember that.

[TrueTomHarley]

2 hours ago, Pudgy said:

Later on it was explained that the entire society agreed with this, and it meant “… mind your own business!”

You might like the story of a young brother I knew who would respond to a certain overinterested party intent on ‘encouragement’ with the short reply, “1 Thessalonians 4:11.”

The bro intent on encouragement said he didn’t know that verse. ‘Look it up,’ was the reply.

The next day that brother, who was also a modest man, approached to say, “You’re a pretty good teacher.”

I see @Araunais not backing down. She seldom does. It’s the prerogative of we old people who have seen a lot and think we have something to say, who see young people chomping down on cotton candy, imagining it substantial, and would warn them that it’s not. And it certainly is true that those who ‘reach for the stars’ come to spiritual ruin far more often than not. So I will tell her a story that spins things her way.

The story was told at LeRoy’s funeral that he, as a young black man in the Deep South, was invited to play along as one of B.B. King’s band members. His son confirmed it. He declined the offer, on the basis of family and spirituality, and went on to make his living on the railroad instead. He came up from the South in his later years to my neck of the woods. For a time we served together on the same BOE. He was outspoken, even occasionally outrageous in things he would say, but always genuine, and universally appreciated. In time, he stepped down as an elder. I even helped persuade him that it would be a good thing, that he had done it all, and should go out ‘on top,’ not when his faculties were starting to decline and people would start to say bad things about him. He was true to the faith till his death and would frequently get together and jam with brothers young enough to be his grandsons. 

I used to tell him that, should I die before him, I wanted him to give my funeral talk. Whoa, that would be a beaut! “Hee hee hee,’ I could picture him rumbling in his deep roguish and jocular voice, “that Tom Harley was a good ol boy, but he’s deead now, D-E-A-D!”

I don’t know. Maybe George is being a bad boy. Arauna thinks the Librarian (that old hen) points to him with a ‘Look! A celebrity! And he’s one of ours!’ type of admiration. Who knows? Maybe she has. Is it really so that having celebrities onboard somehow buttresses your cause? Some of the silliest people on earth are celebrities—all of them, really, except our guys, and we only have a handful. Serena doesn’t even count, because it doesn’t appear she was ever baptized and she has gone on record saying (now that she has a daughter) she means to get serious about the faith she was raised in. We will see what comes to pass. I have a chapter in TTvtA on the brouhaha surrounding that statement..

I agree with Arauna that George is not the one to emulate. But it seems we do damage when we become too insistent that everyone must be ‘an example.’ Leave the fellow in peace and appreciate him for whatever gifts he has. Here we put the constantly repeated ‘Do not compare yourself with one another’ counsel in a setting that we usually don’t put it in, though it applies nonetheless. Alas it is human nature that we will do exactly that.

Growing up, I took one of those psychological tests in which you answer all sorts of nosy questions and are rewarded with indications of what vocation you would be best suited for. Being raised suburban in a non-Witness home, I imagined results would point me to some nice secure field, the sort in keeping with the saying then in vogue, “To get a good job, get a good education.” My dad, raised on the farm, used the GI bill to put himself through engineering school after WWII and took a job with the local utility, figuring that since everyone requires heat and electric, no job could be more secure. People raised during the Depression came to highly value security. 

Instead of similar recommendations, results were that I should be an a) music performer, or (slightly lower priority, but still head and shoulders above anything else) a b) youth counselor. I’ve never done either of those things, but I have come close enough to satisfy both urges. Public speaking (and now blogging) is not so different than music performing. Shepherding (and now writing) is not so different than youth counseling. 

So I have a thing for creative people. And I don’t like  to see them dismissed as ones ‘trying to make a name for themselves.’ or persons incessantly in quest of satisfying their ‘big egos.’ I don’t think that has to be the case at all, though it can be.

[TrueTomHarley]

58 minutes ago, TrueTomHarley said:

My dad, raised on the farm, used the GI bill to put himself through engineering school after WWII and took a job with the local utility

Though it has nothing to do with anything, I’m on a roll and can’t stop:

Employees could be crude at the power company, though my dad was not one of them. “I just wasn’t prepared,” said one brother who started working there as a young man, “for one of those guys to grab me from behind and another to pull my pants down,” a common hazing for new employees.

This brother came to know my dad, sometimes traveling to the nuclear plant where my dad had been promoted. Nuclear technology was then brand new and this is among the oldest plants in the country. He told me that tour guides would lead visitors through the plant. In on the joke, an employee would walk by staggering and drooling, muttering nonsense. “Don’t mind him,” the guide would say. “He’s one of the earliest here and absorbed a little too much radiation.” 

Another story our brother, now retired, told was of newcomers and laborers from General Maintenance being advised that the invisible radiation hangs around at the 3 foot level, but if you stay below that, you’’d be okay. They would walk about and work all day, even carrying heavy gear, in a crouched over position.

Here were jokesters satisfying their ‘big egos,’ though perhaps not making ‘a great name for themselves.’ Or perhaps they were. Our brother remembers these donkeys decades later.

[Pudgy]

I know of dozens of similar things. The word “ego” was never thought of by anyone.  Some involved jokes … some pranks with gasoline.🦴🦴🦴🦴

[The Librarian]

I would say he is doing pretty good for 79 years of age!!  Good for him. 

 

[Arauna]

Yea -very well!   He is talking the talk but is he walking the talk?

[Pudgy]

More to the point … can he talk the talk, and walk the walk, and chew bubble gum at the same time?

One thing I learned from Friday Morning’s Convention program about making peace with people, which I had years ago learned from watching “Schindler’s List”, is if you bow down to someone in absolute prostation seven times, and give them ENORMOUS bribes, they will Love you!

Actually, I figured that out in 1969, living in Hollywood, California. I would show up at parties where I knew absolutely no one, with a 2-1/2 gallon keg of Hamms Beer on my shoulder, and ask “Is this the party?”. They would look at me … look at the keg of beer… look at me, and I was always invited in! ( I ate all I could hold, then picked up my keg, and left …).

And I did think of a profound analogy about Jacob working seven years, and ending up with the wrong wife!

[TrueTomHarley]

4 hours ago, Arauna said:

Yea -very well!   He is talking the talk but

singing the talk

[Pudgy]

MYOB!

1 Thess. 4th chapter ……

 

[Arauna]

4 hours ago, TrueTomHarley said:

singing the talk

Lol. If he was in my congregation I would say nothing. His choices are his own.  I would listen to him at a get-together for sure.... although the smoothness in his voice is no longer there. 3 hours of it may be a bit much for me. 

But I said what I said because I come here to share an opinion which I may not Express any where else....

I know many young JW kids who were practicing singing during this lock-down. One used to be my street -work partner.  She wrote a Russian song (She is Abghasian), she is in her early 30s but looks 20 and is stunningly beautiful, is sweet, very spiritual and puts Jehovah first. Well, she wrote the music... paid an arranger and sent me the recording.... which I absolutely love! 

She put it on internet.... and she keeps busy... she is now busy with the second one. low-key busy with her art. 

I know we are too close to Armageddon for her to build a career and she knows this.... I have told her to be cautious....discussed her art and ambitions.. I believe I am doing the right thing before Jehovah to caution her. 

I myself will maybe sing about once a month...  for friends... that's it.

But I see the danger signals with another young singer. He has a deep baritone/bass..... my favourite voice..... His voice is magnificent.... He will be a fantastic opera buffa singer... he has agility, power and also has developed his higher ranges on his own by singing a lot!  Obsessed with singing..... so he would be an excellent candidate for this world because he has drive! .... so excellent material ... but he is very poor. Cannot afford fancy expensive classes and lives away from the capital city to get a teacher worth his salt. 

So I see him on Facebook putting up badly chosen pop songs with bad words, songs that are not bringing out the beauty in his voice... and he never talks about spiritual things.... just focussed on getting a few half-baked gigs. Time is running out on all of us..... he should focus more on spiritual things and he will be able to crow for eternity.

I speak to young people who I see are ambitious..... and I say it is not the time NOW!  

To be honest.... I do not think any of them will get the chance to show their metal....... new lockdowns will plague them and frustrate them.  A singer just likes to sing..... like birds do it naturally. We are living in a very unnatural world now.... not the right time and place.

Older ones should mentor younger ones to be the best they can be under these new circumstances. 

I lost another brilliant friend of mine. Plays the piano- most difficult pieces and accompanies himself while singing. Lovely strong classical voice. Teaches at a university....... but became apostate. He was like a son to me..,,, he used to play for me and we used to have sing-song together. I have not seen him for ten years.  

Football, singing and a few of these professions take their toll on the young ones.  ..... that is all I wanted to say.  

[TrueTomHarley]

On 7/10/2022 at 12:08 AM, Arauna said:

But I said what I said because I come here to share an opinion which I may not Express any where else....

Understood

On 7/10/2022 at 12:08 AM, Arauna said:

I have told her to be cautious..

Trouble is, it’s not in the nature of young people to be cautious. ‘The beauty of young men is their power,’ the verse says, not their caution. This doesn’t mean you are not right in the bulk of what you say. I think you are.

On 7/10/2022 at 12:08 AM, Arauna said:

Older ones should mentor younger ones to be the best they can be under these new circumstances. 

Yes

On 7/10/2022 at 12:08 AM, Arauna said:

Football, singing and a few of these professions take their toll on the young ones.  ..... that is all I wanted to say.  

Yes. What you say is both true and well=motivated. You have stated matters well. 

It’s just that those of creative bent, who may not excel in more practical gifts, are always being urged to tone it down, stay low key, keep their talents under a basket—whereas if your talents lay in putting down carpet, you would be honored in the highest places. Understand, it’s not the honor that is sought—it is the ability to move about freely.

There are brothers who are craftsmen, who truly excel at their field, and are highly sought after. One of them locally is snapped up by a Fortune 500 company that puts him on their private jet and flies him to their various facilities, treating him like royalty. Nobody ever dreams it is an improper tending to his career or that he is unhealthily inflating his ego.

My quip for the longest time has been ‘if it pays, I’m not good at it. If I’m good at it, it doesn’t pay.’

’How come you never taught me practical things?’ I said to my aged dad, who was handy. ‘I did,’ the amiable fellow said, long removed from his former taciturn days. ‘You just weren’t paying attention that day.’

I think he fell for the mantra then in vogue, ‘to get a good job, get a good education.’ You can always hire people to do that lesser stuff for you.

I have what I need. I don’t complain. I do let off steam from time to time, but that’s like the Eastern European man who went to the police to assure them that the political views of his parrot were not his.

[Arauna]

6 minutes ago, TrueTomHarley said:

olitical views of his parrot were not his.

I enjoyed your posting so much - even read it to my husband,