Leaderboard

Excanesta, the way I remember it is thus. Ly: Early 1986, maybe around Jan - Feb - I got a call from someone at the Way Nash, then my wife got a call, and the people were asking if and what we knew about a "book", a "paper" written by Geer. They described it as a "tell all" thing, named names, was the posthumous remarks, comments, last months of and recorded legacy of VPW, written by Geer. It had been read to the Way Corps at the Way Nash that week by Craig who had gone ballistic, literally. He was talking about how messed up everything and everyone was - they told me that he had made the statement that if it was "this bad" it was "MALPAK" time, time to hit the road and get out. It sounded a little over the edge, to us. I/we knew nothing about such a paper/book, that was the first we'd heard about it or anything like it. Assorted tapes were bootlegged out for a few months after that, as the Way's Region and Limb bosses and assorted management types were called in and met with, and the blubbering was well under way by that year's Corps week and ROA, as you may remember. I remember it somewhat - clearly - because I could understand what was happening at the Way Nash, having lived there. We spoke to people that next few months and it sounded like a hayride in a hell - paranoia, fear, constant diatribes against this person or that, every week a new person vilified for anything imaginable, then someone else lauded to the heavens for their great Stand On The Word. And nobody knew that the f they were really talking about - nothing had changed, really - the only thing that changed was how we thought. Everything done up to that point was done. Once anyone got squared up with that simple reality the future was and is the only thing left to consider. It was kindergarten Kristianity, and very difficult to get a grip on what was happening there and throughout the country as everyone suddenly - it was like the cap blew off a bottle of soda that had been shaken up for years and now WHOOOOOOSH!!!!!! and there was no going back in the bottle. I had a copy of the POP papier sent to me, a copy of a copy of a clandeestinely smuggled scratched out copy of some notes from the tapes - which reminds me that there were people suddenly buying pallets - I was told this but don't know if it's true - but pallets of cassette tapes so they could start copying everything they could get their hands on, and they were doing exactly that. It was like a war zone and Memorex was the infantry weapon on the ground. But once I got my eyes on the actual information it seemed a little....thin....and more than a little....self serving. Sure it was meaningful to the time and the people, all of us. But it wasn't worth losing much sleep over. VPW had been sick for years before he died. In fact, the overall time of the Way under his acting leadership was relatively short, from the formal filming of PFAL in 1967 to his death in 1985. In fact it could be argued he really only put in about 12 - 13 really active years as President of the Way before he was hampered by illness. Sure, the Way times their history back decades before that but "The Way" we came in contact with, the guy in the skinny black suit wiping his schnozz and saying "Dot's RIGHT!" every 5 minutes really memorialized in 1967 - and then quickly became outdated within about 2 years. He was reinventing himself very quickly, then. You know I don't write off all of my years and work I did with others, what I learned and the wonderful people I met like yourself. But I lost my rose colored glasses long ago. It burns some people that I'm so blunt about it while valuing the Word of God and the relationships I gained. But I do, to me there's no conflict left, "it is what it is" and was, the good, the bad, and the ugly. I only have one thing left now, and that's more than enough for me.