potato

what ALLEGEDLY happened.

I await the genetic results with interest.

http://hattrick-dals.home.att.net/newbornnails.jpg apparently puppies can have quite sharp claws at birth.

without genetic proof, I'm in favor of the inheritance theory. I had a dog and cat who littered at the same time and shared their offspring. between them they co-mothered about 10 offspring and did a darn good job, but.... the ones who survived grew up with strange health issues or retardation, probably from malnourishment :blink:

funny how many people I ran across in my time with twi who left because of Mike.

curious... I remember after the POP thing that DM and the singing ladies wore the same few dresses all the time, for every public appearance. was it a sham? did DM still spend money behind the backs of honest people who ABS'd extra because the ministry was existing on a shoestring? or had their budgets truly been cut?

rascal, thanks for sharing this. it made me laugh! it really is ok to start back at square one.

I'm so not interested in ever hearing vpw's voice again. I can finally confess that his teachings bored me and that every time he said "mah peeeee-pul" I wanted to scream. there, it's out!!! whew. the requirement of sitting through pfal ad nauseum was almost more than I could bear but I could never figure out how to get out of it short of leaving, which I could *not* do. pfal bored me the first time I took it except for a few brief minutes of excitement here and there when he taught some meat. at the end of it, I calculated that he could have taught it in one session if he hadn't repeated himself so much. I won't ever put myself through that torture again.

T&O and Belle, it makes me very thankful to know that you have the attitude you do about your past, it helps restore my ability to trust... and that Maya Angelou quote is perfect. there are a few people I will apologize to if the opportunity is found. one is to someone near and dear to me who I am trying to see at the earliest opportunity. last time I saw her I was still "in". I won't go to a splinter group, although that's the first place I looked when I thought of leaving twi. I couldn't imagine life without regimented religion... but I craved freedom, so I broke all ties with religion except belief that God is Love. the rest is being sorted out. I won't go to a church or a home study group because I'm scared. I don't want to be sucked into a cult again. I'll visit some churches when I'm stronger and see if it's something that fits into my life.

Amen Twinky!! Congrats on the new job! it's nice to work somewhere where your skills and strengths are appreciated and utilized.

and following the wolf in sheep's clothing reference, the next verse is so telling: Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles? if their words were all that's important, why would Jesus make a big deal of their fruit? I like to think of fruit as everything left in a person's wake. and then: Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit. um. yeah. again, good words are all that count? I think not. Jesus has a directive for what to do with corrupt trees with bad fruit. it is not "sit at their feet and take away only their good words and forgive the rest".

coolchef, I'm reading this thread from work. would you fire me for taking a little break to read a personal bbs or email my friend about my sick cat? sometimes people just need a break.

I've worked in both, and in my present job I have no set hours. the only requirement I have is to do my work and interact with my team, which requires I be there some overlapping hours. with kids, I'm often late and have to leave early. if I didn't have the option to work late at night and on weekends to make it up, I'd have to give up on my career and work part time at the grocery store.

I don't consider it a waste of my life to process what has gone before so I can be free of it. I don't know how long it will take to heal from what they did to me, others have sustained so much damage that there are permanent wounds. others got through unscathed and thankful for the very things that revolt some of us and fill us with anger. anger is a necessary step in the process of letting go, and twi will never completely go away. you can't spend years getting abused and one day think "those were just my years in twi". I'm inclined to think I will always feel some grief over it. those years are gone. yes, I have a chance to be happy now, but still, all those years are gone, a waste except for having 2 great kids who were also almost destroyed. it's going to be so many years before we're out of the woods over things that were done that I really can't look at as anything but a long and sustained battle that I intend to win.

I agree with you Raf. I was just talking the letter of the law, not the spirit of Truth.

this is gonna be a little off topic, but who actually wrote Rise and Expansion?

bnis, I question all my beliefs as well. it helps that I get to talk them over with my kids and with another person who left twi at the same time. we both have waybrain but it's sorting out. it's just gonna take some time.

and if in the public domain, no requirements to cite the source when creating derivative works.

that must have been a favorite theme of his for a while then. I probably heard it in the early 90s.

I remember that, or something very similar... do you remember where/when that was?

in 2000 I was explicitely told by my FC to vote for Bush or horrible things would happen to our country. I can't help but think that directive came down via the corps night meetings or directly from the RC.

linking is the best, but for some reason google seems to pick up most stuff from bbs's anyway. I find my own posts on another board in google, high at the top of search, and there are no links to them. still, links are good, especially for sites trying to get crawled in the first place (actually that seems to be the only way to get crawled ). now I know another thing that would help is to check google for Food Pyramid or Harvard University Food Pyramid <<===(gratuitous use of keywords) after its next crawl and when finding the link to GSC's food pyramid thread, click it. it will push the Food Pyramid conversation higher up in the results.

yay! let me help out! Harvard University Food Pyramid. Food Pyramid information. Healthy eating using Food Pyramid. Good Food Pyramid Information

... and random, fluffy, wild bouquets of flowers on every second or third table. everyone's nametags should say "jesus christ" to remind us how great it is to be equals. I'll work, I'll fold napkins or wash dishes or something, if everyone is working alongside, otherwise I'll chip in for the caterer haha, I just had an awesome thought of whichever TWIt has been assigned to read the board having a heart attack over how out of fellowship I must be to post something that UNEDIFYING!!!

I will stay because all of you extended a hand of fellowship and let me cry and heard my anger and pain when I realized that what I gave twi was a waste. I feel like it is a war against evil, but it seems it can only be won by helping people get healed on the way out.