Groups > The Writing Group (TWG)

In case I am misunderstood or I have not made it clear.

Everything I have written is true - you couldn't make it up if you tried and these things did actually happen, but the Brethren are a litigious bunch of people.

They tried to close down a site to which I subscribe and where I am a fairly prolific contributor.

http://www.pressbox.co.uk/detailed/Society/Exclusive_Brethren_Force_Identity_Disclosure_From_Anonymous_Web_Site_Owner_174396.html

I am also not ashamed of anything in any way whatsoever, maybe a trifle embarrassed at how naive I was, but I am not ashamed - even of my rampant wild youth - but decided to add those wild moments because they did happen.

My main concern was that I know other people who were in the exact same position as myself, but they cannot string two sentences together. I was more worried about someone "lifting" my words lock, stock and barrell"!

I understand, BriSco, however I see no reason they should sue you for what you have written. I have a friend who has been trying to disentangle herself from the Brethren's mental inculcations. She is lesbian, but reluctant to leave her faith. I think the American branch is not so strict as the group you describe, but they are not accepting of her lifestyle and she feels a lot of guilt. I hope you can find that fine line of safety between speaking and not affronting.

I've got ideas and I like to entertain people. Writing is what I do well, so I do it and hopefully someone likes it.

Jim

I've been enjoying reading about your experiences. It seems to me that you are at a point where you could benefit from brainstorming on where this is all taking you and what form it could take. (Of course, you are doing some of this here online.) For example, you could write this as a series of letters to your daughters or perhaps you could group memories by seasons or houses you lived in. Or maybe the Brethren had 25 laws and you could use those. I find it is easier to do a BIG project when I can divide it into pieces. Keep writing!

Thank you JSutton, whoever and wherever you are!

The concept of rules is a nice one, but the Brethren didn't consider the 10 commandments sufficient so they invented several thousand more. Alas, the problem is they keep changing the rules. At one time no radio controlled garage openers were permitted. The power of the air (radio) was the devil. No fax machines were allowed. No cell-phones were allowed. Now all of these are permitted.

Today, radio and TV's are still forbidden as are the wearing of pants or jewelry or make-up on women, smoking and beards are forbidden (one of the reasons I wear one and smoke a pipe - maybe out of the sheer desire to prove that God will not smite me if I don't conform)!

Computers were forbidden and I know of families who were excommunicated because they used one for their business. Now they are "indispensible". You get the picture, there are too many rules and they keep getting changed.

The intention in developing my story was not particularly to concentrate on the brethren but give my personal experiences before and after the five years of torment from the day I left the brethren and the day I was forced to flee Glasgow. Of my current 65 years, only those 5 were torment. What you have read so far is primarily 1) the reason I left - and all within a week; then 2) just the one day after I left - and 3) one little reflection on my childhood.

Before and since has been a ball and that's really what I want to get over. Clearly I need a brainstorming session to put it into place, but I'm not yet ready for that! I shall continue to scribble stuff until I think there's enough to dispose of wads of it.

Having left Glasgow, I doubt if I ever even thought about the Brethren. I thought I was just one out of maybe a dozen or maybe a hundred at most.

Imagine my surprise when, in 2003, I stumbled across a website where over 1000 people like myself - in all four corners of the world - all suddenly discovered we all had a common ancestry - albeit a fellowship or brotherhood called Brethren.

What's more, if we didn't know them personally, I knew people who either they knew or they knew people who knew me!

This is turning into a chapter and is not meant to, but it might go to illustrate that I need to explain all this to you, but these people I now meet I need no more than a handshake and we instantly know all there is to know about each other's background!

But when I write about my schooldays etc., then my involvement in senior UK and European politics, I think there are still interesting vignettes which need to be captured for posterity - if only for the family history.

I'm not sure whether I said this before, so I'll apoligize if I'm repeating myself, but writing is at the center of my heart. I always wrote things down, at a very early age, to say something and have it there, and then look at it. it gave me pleasure.

It was something of mine. Growing up, my life was not perfect, and when sad, I'd get away to the attic and write something - mostly dumb poetry about suicide.

When I was raising teenagers, sometimes, I couldn't handle it, and I'd take a drive to the park and sit in the car and weep, and later I'd write something about teenagers.

Now, I have work that is less than fulfilling, and care-giving which is really demanding, but with all the this-and-that that sucks up my time, I have writing, which is just me and it, the two of us all alone. Sometimes a scene I observe will grab me, amd I'll have to build a story around that, and working it, and re-working it, is very relaxing.

Wish I could give you more than one Inspirational for this, Westerly.