James Thomas Rook Jr.

My deceased Father, in one of his observational moods, spent some time watching how well I took  care of, and loved  my dog, Jed, (Jedediah Dog), and remarked "If I am ever reincarnated, I want to come back as your dog."
ECC: 9:3-4
" 3 This is the evil in everything that happens under the sun: The same destiny overtakes all. The hearts of people, moreover, are full of evil and there is madness in their hearts while they live, and afterward they join the dead. 4 Anyone who is among the living has hope[b]—even a live dog is better off than a dead lion!
As to whether it is better to be  a live dog or a dead lion .... It is better still to be a LIVE LION, than a dead dog.
....and a lot easier!
Unless of course, you are among those agenda driven great unwashed masses who suffer from WDS, ( "The Sword That Cuts Both Ways" (tm) ) for which things that make normal common sense make no sense at all.
 
 

They have quarter walls on the platform of the new Kingdom Hall I visited. Most taking the platform would walk up from the side, disappear behind one end of the wall and then reappear from the other end to take the speaker position. I only saw one person do it differently.
It is just a small thing. Hardly worth mentioning. Petty, anyone? I ought to rise about the temptation to say anything. But.....on the other hand........
IT DROVE ME NUTS! Why would anyone do it that way?
I know how this happens. Someone starting doing it thinking it looked more “dignified.” Others thought it was a cool idea, and followed suit. That is how these things work. There is never a ‘rule’ though occasionally there is an unwritten rule which you cope with by just ignoring it.
The way you stop this nonsense is by deliberately flying in the face of it. Structures vary, but usually there is but a single step from the auditorium to the platform—it runs the width of the platform—and you mount that step any old place that you happen to be—let the stuffy other brothers think that you are barbaric if they must. What is more likely to happen is that they will come to think the other way is a little silly.
They see it done that way at the Assembly Hall and they try to carry over the experience to the Kingdom Hall. At the Assembly Hall, that seats 1000, well—of course! Just like in any auditorium, you have to enter through a door in the back and then come on stage behind a curtain or a half wall. You can’t just take stage directly from the auditorium because you would have to clamber up a 2 or 3 foot wall, and that would look ridiculous. 
Entering from behind the short walls at the Kingdom Hall makes just the opposite impression. The walls are convenient places to store junk behind, most likely—unused mike stands and the like. It’s not for a pretentious means for entry when you can just walk up easy as pie from where ever you are!
“Sure!” says my wife. “You always know just the way it should be. Of course! Everyone else is doing it wrong. Only Tom knows the way to do it!”
Finally, that woman is catching on! DO IT RIGHT, BROTHERS!

Anybody heard of poetic licence? 
Def.  "The freedom to depart from the facts of a matter or from the conventional rules of language when speaking or writing in order to create an effect."

My perception is that it is every day normal reality, not idiosyncrasies.
 In keeping with the theme of "Dogs", did you know that the brightest star in Earth's sky is Sirius, the Dog Star?
...just sayin' ....
 

And addressing some of JW Insider's concerns, ideas and memories are ATTACHED to each other ... and speaking of dogs does evoke religious ideas of faithfulness, and loyalty ... and hopefully not  rocks.
As an example, even though I know intellectually that there is absolutely no evidence whatsoever that there is a "Rainbow Bridge", my heart has faith that perhaps Jehovah's love for Humans will cause him to create one ... just as I am now constructing a chicken coop and chicken run,  that costs over a thousand dollars, for my wife's 20 pet week-old baby bantam chickens, which SHE  bought for one dollar each, now living in a kid's plastic swimming pool under a heat lamp, on our dining room table .... so my dogs cannot get to them.
... for the next MONTH.
.... sigh ......
Something I am happy to do ... although in my wildest imagination, I never planned on, or thought of.  Perhaps similar to Jehovah's love, and a "Rainbow Bridge" (?).
NOW .... we have a topic that includes Jehovah's Witnesses beliefs, hopes, expectations .... dogs... and CHICKENS!

This is where education is so very, very important ... because without education ... and experience ...it is impossible to even HAVE any common sense. There is a truck commercial here in the United states that (if memory serves) , declares that "Cheverolet Trucks are like a ROCK!"  It evokes a mental image of strength, but not being Fred Flintstone, I really do NOT want a truck that is like a rock.
 
I prefer a truck that operates like a truck, and is made, primarily of steel.
In English, " Ps.89:37:"Like the moon, it will be firmly established forever as a faithful witness in the skies.”  is called a "simile" ...things that evoke an image of similarity, even though they may have absolutely nothing in common.
Barring unforeseen circumstances that force events, it is my observations that a sane dog is in fact faithful, and loyal, to a sane master ... and sometimes even to one nuttier than a fruit cake. 
... and in my experience, there are more sane dogs than sane people
Common sense dictates that faithfulness and loyalty are the product of a thinking brain that has the capacity to choose to do otherwise.
But then again .... WDS is often the controlling factor, ... and common sense becomes not all that common.
( ..and as an aside... each year the Moon gets further away from the Earth by about an inch and a half, or 38mm, and  in about 50 billion years the Earth and Moon will be BOTH tidally locked to each other, both eternally facing each other, one side only, as the Moon is tidally locked to the Earth, today.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orbit_of_the_Moon )
Then, half the earth will NEVER see the moon, again.
 
 
 

The Sun, Moon and Stars are things without brain ,  so they can not be no faithful neither loyal. (only if we imagine that all what have some sort of energy on atomic level are not "dead things" and by that are able to show some attributes of Creator)   :))
 
FAITHFUL in UK:
 firm and not changing in your friendship with or support for a person or an organization, or in your belief in your principles:
a faithful friend
They are faithful supporters of the Labour Party.
His faithful old dog accompanied him everywhere he went.

C2 If your husband, wife, or partner is faithful, he or she does not have a sexual relationship with anyone else:
Was your wife faithful during your marriage?
He was faithful to his wife throughout their 30-year marriage.
 
to continue to support or follow something:
He remained faithful to the regime when so many others spoke out against it.
Despite persecution, she remained faithful to her beliefs.
true or not changing any of the details,facts, style, etc. of the original:
She gave a faithful account of what had happened on that night.
I have tried to keep my translation as faithful as possible to the original book.
 
following a particular religion:
faithful Christians
faithful followers of Buddhism
 
someone who continues to support someone or something:
He gave a rousing speech to a room full of party faithfuls (= faithful supporters of a political party).
 
people who are always loyal to a particular group ororganization,  especially a political party:
They asked for donations from the party faithful.

the people who believe in aparticular religion:
We heard bells calling the faithful to prayer.
 
FAITHFUL in US:
trusted; loyal:
She has been a faithful employee for 30 years.

If something, such as a copy or recording, is faithful, it is exactly like or very similar to the original:
The painting was a faithful reproduction of theoriginal.
 
If you are faithful to someone or something, you remain loyal and keepthe promises you made:
You've been faithful to your family.
 
 
LOYAL in UK:
B2 firm and not changing in your friendship with or support for a person or anorganization, or in your belief in your principles:
Jack has been a loyal worker in this company for almost 50 years.
When all her other friends deserted her, Steve remained loyal.
She's very loyal to her friends.
 
COMMERCE, MARKETING              a loyal customer always buys the same product, uses the same store, etc.:
Supermarkets should reward their most loyal customers.
loyal to sb/sth Our customers remain loyal to the brand.

HR                                                       a loyal employee works for the same company for many years:
loyal to sb/sth Training programmes  encourage workers to remain loyal to their employers.
 
LOYAL in US: 
always giving help and encouragement:
People close to Woodruff are fiercely loyal and quick to shower her with superlatives.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

I used to really LIKE the old tin plated, steel drink cans of yesteryear ... that you needed a "church key" that would make a triangular hole in the top of the can, and the other end would open a glass soda bottle metal pressed on top. You could always tell who tried to open the soda bottles with their teeth, as they had some missing, and others that they had left, could use to eat corn on the cob through a picket fence.
I was young, and had a blue 454 corvette convertible with  an automatic transmission, and when it was almost dark, I could drive with my right hand on the steering wheel, and with my left hand drag a steel can on the pavement, making a shower of sparks .... and the little kids would look at me ... and marvel!

Does she have to wear that A around her neck for the rest of her life?
(Not sure if that's a reference to Samuel Taylor Coleridge or Nathaniel Hawthorne. I guess it all depends on what the meaning of "A" is.)

Understated beautifully. I think faithfulness and loyalty are related, but different. But....that's another story.....

Painting by Briton Riviere

That's not his best white dress shirt?

.... I was once called down from the platform, because I had a blue shirt, instead of a white shirt.
It looks like this Brother solved that problem.

Actually, Jehovah created the Grey Wolf ..... EVERY dog that exists was created by mankind, through selective breeding.  
As breeding was "guided" for certain characteristics, along with desired traits, there were "spin off" characteristics that branched off into other dogs.
Jehovah God did NOT create ANY dogs.  They are the sole creation of mankind .... using the life and genetic potential God gave the Grey Wolf.

You can speak of them any way you want to .... after a lifetime of experience and observation I KNOW BETTER.
Our God is Jehovah.
A Dog's god is his master, if his master is a good one.
 

We are famously loyal. Here’s what happens to the home of whoever says we are not:

This is not a tenable statement.
Loyalty implies faithfulness to one’s pledged word or continued allegiance to the institution or the principles to which one feels himself morally bound; the term suggests not only adherence but resistance to being lured and persuaded away from that adherence.
Because loyalty always includes principle, only free moral agents, such as man, made in, and capable of reflecting, Gods image, are able to express loyalty. The capacity to understand and demonstrate true loyalty is bound up in having a personal relationship with the Creator, who alone is (or defines what is) loyal. (Rev.15:4). A dog cannot develop such a relationship with God, and thus can never be spoken of as being loyal.
A dog (and many other animals), can be said to be faithful, for to be faithful means to be dependable, to be constant. Even inanimate objects like the sun, moon, and stars can be spoken of as faithful, as they are in God's word (comp.Ps.89:37). But these things are not loyal.
As stated, only free moral agents can express loyalty as a personal choice, based not only on a personal adherence to the one who is an object of that loyalty, but also on a comprehension of the principles that define its expression.

I love dogs, and I think Jehovah took special care to make the dog a loyal companion for humans, more than any other animal, but I would disagree that humans cannot be as loyal. There are many accounts in history where humans sacrificed their life for another human. In fact it is more of a sacrifice on the human's part since most of the time they are fully aware of what they are doing. Dogs act on their loyal instinct that Jehovah put in them.

Yes. it is a sad fact that humans are not as loyal as dogs.

How patronising can you get?

Even some of the anointed ones with the heavenly hope are going to need a sense of humor.

This reminds me of an apocryphal story of a brother all nervous because he was to be working with the circuit overseer, and he wanted everything to be just so, something he never would have cared about otherwise.
So he pressed his suit, but got distracted.
”Brother, don’t you have a suit jacket other than this one?” said the CO later in service, glancing behind at the heavy black iron mark on the coat’s back. Maybe this brother did the same with his best white dress shirt.

Jehovah himself invented joking and  laughs at his own:
Awake April 8 1979: "When you observe the playful antics of baby kittens or watch otters zipping down a mud slide and splashing into a pond, do you not discern something about their Maker? He must be a happy Person. Certainly a God that created a monkey must himself have a sense of humor."
Jehovah also uses humor in his teaching. We can see this at Isaiah 44:14-17
Jesus followed this pattern and injected humor into his teaching also, paticularly in the use of hyperbole (rafters, camels, etc):
WT August 15 2003: "Jesus was not a tight-lipped martinet. He was warm and friendly. For Christians today, a sense of humor can lighten the gloom in times of stress."
And also, a good sense of humor and a positive disposition can help us cope with health problems:
Awake April 22 2005:  "Why is a good sense of humor effective as a healer? Because it is a quality that allows us to handle situations in a positive way, even in the face of unfavorable circumstances.“By including humor and laughter in our daily lives, we maintain our energy level, we alleviate fatigue, and we expel self-pity,” "
It is important to recognise that humor is very personal, just like taste and color. I understood @The Librarianto be injecting a bit of humor with this post, but what may be funny to one person may be taken seriously by someone else, and even seem like an insult to another.  The Awake 8 Sep 1980 is enlightening on cultural differences in humor, and we should, of course, be sensitive to the feelings of others in this regard. Rom.14:1.
But it is important to keep a sense of proportion and not to take ourselves too seriously. Otherwise we may feel unecessarily upset when the other person was only ribbing us!

 

I agree, that both men and women have the same  number of ribs .... what I was TRYING to explain that the Bible says Jehovah took A RIB (not a portion of a rib) from Adam.   That left him short, one rib.
His children would STILL be born with the usual number of ribs.
There is NO EVIDENCE ANYWHERE about "a portion of a rib ...", or that " his rib grew back".
NONE WHATSOEVER.