hiway29

Speaking of financial contributions outside of twi. One day in new Knoxville, my corps grad, hq 'bless patrol' officer friend offered up the following statement regarding giving, which I remember word for word. "There's nothing wrong with giving to charity, as long as it's a worthwhile one like the NRA, or the republican party." I didn't know whether to laugh or cry. I was a middle of the road, non political person before the way. Got a snootful of the way's extreme right wing fervor, and bought into some of it, while keeping my mouth shut when I disagreed. Am neither left or right now, and vote either party. Believe Bush and his regime is the most destructive in my lifetime, and at the moment feel like they should be hauled into court for the lies that got us into this nightmare in Iraq.

Joann and Clyde got divorced long ago, and Joann returned to the homestead with her 3 kids, where she remarried to a guy with kids also. This was in the mid 90's and from there, I have no idea. I assume she resettled in that area.

It's not so much the money I saved from tithing, but the freedom to pursue a career without guilt. I didn't start on a real career path until I was 37, and while I don't care to lay the blame or responsibility all on the way, it was just a fact of life that all of my free time was spent in meetings etc. There was also an underlying attitude that it didn't really matter what you did for a living as all work was honorable, and if it gets in the way of moving the word, the word comes first, I wonder how the way managed to get so much abundant sharing since everyone I knew had low paying menial jobs.

The 'zero' corps was technically the first corps. As vp slovingly recounted it in 'The Way-Living in Love", they couldn't get their acts together and were given the 'privilege of leaving'. When he tried again a year or so later, the next group was more to his liking and were henceforth known as the 1st corps. On a sidenote-I was once kicked out of a way home, and as I was being given the boot, I was told I was being given the 'privilege of leaving'. It seemed somehow appropriate coming from a junior woodchuck vpw.

I understand excathedra, and am not making any judgement on you and it makes me sick that you've experienced such abuse. All I was saying is we don't know anything about the particular deathbed case, and it was interesting to me that it would try to be explained or justified without knowing the facts. A guy I was in cub scouts with murdered his wife and buried her in the patio. I dont need to know his reasons to know what I think of that. Another guy from cub scouts murdered his whole family a few years ago, and his father was the scoutmaster! We gotta keep kids out of the cub scouts!

I t is interesting to me that whenever a woman murders a man , there is a tendency to try to justify it, usually from women who have experienced horrific relationships with fathers , husbands, and 'understand' why it happened. I realize that many men are evil and worthless, but murder is murder.

I cant understand why anyone even listens to O'Reilly in the first place. He's no more interesting than your average blowhard at work, has no compelling ideas or thoughts that I've eber heard, and for all of his 'no spin zone' blather, does nothing BUT spin. I can't imagine anyone sitting down to watch TV after working all day and looking at him.

The Lima ROA was in '75-first one I attended-It moved back to Sidney for 2 more years before moving to HQ in '78. The Lima rock claim to fame was the night it poured cats and dogs on vp-who continued gamely teaching while Howard held an umbrella over the bible and everyone else stayed sitting in the downpour in rapt attention. That was when they decided to get a main tent, which showed up at Sidney the next year. Lima was ok, but as I said earlier, Sidney was the best place for me. My last rock was '86, but it was all over for me in '85. That was really craig's 'coming out' party, since vp had died in March.

Sydney fairgrounds for me. There was still an aspect of 'fun' there-dances after the main teaching, music and stuff going on till late-the thing was still breaking out of the 'groovy Christian' phase, and spontaniety was not completly suppressed yet. Plus the funky non-way buildings, the grocery store across the street -physical stuff the way couldn't control, all made for a pretty swell time.

The class went up to 200 bucks when they made the move to include the intermediate class with the foundational. A disastrous decision in my opinion, as most new students were not fully indoctrinated into waythink to the point where they could speil off 'interpretations' of tongues yet. Very uncomfortable classe It also cracked me up that the rationale for the price boost was that if they charged what it was REALLY worth, they'd be charging thousands of dollars, so the class is practically a give away at 200 bucks.

That picture is truly disturbing, and I'd love to see a breakdown explaining what every detail in it is supposed to mean. It does break every spiritual rule about art according to Elena Whiteside, but that's not necessarily bad, as I can't imagine anyone producing innovative and important art by following all the spiritual 'rules' Still, that picture is just a nightmare. Nothing makes any sense, the composition is horrific, the colors garish, as the previous posts here have pointed out so well. I wonder what John and Meg K*sh would think of this poster. I don't know where they are, but I can't imagine they're still connected with the joint.

I lost track after 35-but it's easily over 40, and of course it was better everytime, as I always heard something I never heard before, and was more spiritually mature. Actually, I can't believe I sat through those 4 hour evenings night after night after night, struggling to stay awake, and as often as not just being there in the name of 'grad support', as the boredom of the class was preferable to the rantings of that year's leader. Let's see, at 12 sessions per class (15 for several years, thank you) ,with 40 classes being a conservative estimate, that comes to a minimum of500 nights listening to the same class.... WHAT THE HECK WERE WE DOING!!! Oh well, he hasn't cracked up yet-in the automobile.

what if I love my job but my homelife isn't fantastic? still-that comes closest to me so I check that box.

I had the pleasure of undergoing a corps evaluation one year, and I wasn't in the corps or have any intention to be. I was a twig coord, and my branch leader thoguht it would be a good thing for me ( gak). Amazingly I came through with very little 'reproof', and the look at what I'd have to go through annually pretty much squelched any thoughts I may have been harboring to go in the corps, which I doubt was the goal of the guy who evaluated me.

I remember Martindale going on about mountains at a corps meeting that somehow I was invited to, even tho I wasn't corps, praise allah. He had just visited lake Placid where the winter olympics were being held, and totally berated the work going into it, how it's so trivial compared to moving the word, and it's just man's ego, yadda yadda. Then he started in on how there will be no mountains in the new heaven and earth, that mountains seperate people and were not at the creation.A loose translation according to memory is that he said"al you guys who love mountains so much are going to be in for a surprise, when they're all gone". Then he made fun of people who thought mountains were beautiful. This would of been 80 or 81, depending on when the Lake Placid olympics were.

I can't imagine ANYONE getting interested in the way with Rosie pitching it. Have they completely run out of good front men who can hold an audience? Long ago I used to wake up and find John Lynn on a 5 minute sermonette thing that he did for a local New York channel. Whatever one thinks of Lynn, it was always a laugh to see this energetic somewhat entetaining dude where normally the 5 minute sermonettes were dull as dishwater. No mention of the way, Lynn gave some gobbledygook about Jonah and the whale, and I always got a kick out of it. Let's face it-there was a time long ago and far away, that we would have all been thrilled that the way got Terry Bradshaws attention. As clueless as they are, it kinda surprises me that they didn't put a more dynamic speaker out there. Just a thought. Not losing any sleep. I'm glad it bombed royally.

Here's a little bit of my story, and if it sounds like I'm rambling, it's because I'm putting this down as I go, and I hope it makes sense. I got into the way in '75, at the Univ of Bridgeport in Conn. I was graduating in a few months , and was riddled with fear and uncertainty about what was next. I could write pages about the mess I had been since early childhood, but for now I'll just say that I was extremely introverted, with no sense of self worth whatsoever,smoking pot daily to escape it all, and totally ill equipped to go out in the world and survive. In short, I was a perfect candidate to be indoctrinated into the way. My only discernible talent and achievement was a fairly decent ability in art, which I hoped to channel in some fashion. To cut through the first years, I took the class,went wow, returned to Conn, and became a twig leader over the next few years. For all of the many abuses I was subjected to during that time, I did learn how to come out of my 'shell', and actually became a not bad teacher of way doctrine. I also got off pot, so I do believe there was an initial positive influence for me the first couple of years. I was getting nowhere with my so called career tho, not to mention the other deeply rooted issues of my life. One time ,when I was running a twig, way home, and coordinating a class while working in a metal grinding factory, I had a heart to heart talk with the branch rev about my need to devote some time to the work I wanted to do. His wise response was I wasn't abundant sharing enough and I have nothing to gripe about. I'll fast forward to 1986, living in San Diego, slowly leaving the way, but still kinda hanging on. I knew it was over, and right at that time I contracted ulcerative colitis, which is an incurable intestinal disease featuring such symptoms as constant diarrhea, stomach pains,blood in the stool, and frequent loss of bowel control. I had few friends around me, I was living in a hole of an apt, with the reality of homelessness one bad financial month away. I was working as a comic book artist for a company that was always behind in paying me, and too sick with colitis to go out and get a job that Id have to be at for 8 hours. I truly believed it was the end of the road for me, broke, and diseased. Just when things looked darkest, I managed to get an interview with one of the lesser animation studios in Los Angeles, and got an entry level position. I packed up my stuff and moved to LA, living first in a half built house, then in a cheap apt near the studio. I was determined that I would not get beat again. To make that long story short, I've built a career in this industry, and have worked for most every major animation studio since 1990, primarily Disney, and Warner Bros. I saved enough to buy a nice condo in one of the better areas of Pasadena, and count my blessings every day. I still had the issue of the colitis tho. For 8 years I was in constant torment. Not a day went by that I wasn't afraid to leave the house for fear of losing control, and the abdominal pains and bleeding frightened me no end. My first 4 years in animation I lived with it. Pulling myself together every day to go into work and get through the day, then going home to rest at night. Finally in 1993, I made the decision to have surgery. The option was always there to have my colon removed and wear a bag on my side the rest of my life, but that freaked me out. Now I was given the option of a new procedure where they would remove the colon, thus removing the disease, and construct an internal 'pouch', then reconnect the plumbing inside. This I opted for and went in for 6 hours of surgery, followed by 3 months of rcuperation. I had few intimate friends nearby at this time, and spent 2 weeks in the hospital with no visitors, except for my friend Jim from high school, who flew out to see me. I was healed of the disease, and have seen many of my life's dreams come true. I do not think any of this would have been accomplished had I stayed in the way. Well that's a little of my story. Thanks to anyone who actually read this far. Oh, and you can see my artwork at my on line portfolio andyice.com if you're interested.

6th grade -recess. We were called back into class, and after the news were told to put our heads on our desks. My school job was raising the flag ,and I took it down that day. I don't recall if I raised it half mast then or when we got back to school the next week. Maybe it's hard for people like Early 2it to understand how deeply it cut into our lives and psyches. Perhaps we're all so jaded these days to be cynical about everything and everyone. Nothing seems to shock or move anymore. Even the horrors of 9/11 seem like an old movie by now.

I was at advanced class '79. The only time I recall Jonestown being discussed was one night when the power went out in the huge meeting hall. I don't remember most of what was said, but I do recall him talking govt involvement and conspiracy theories. He claimed that all the bodies were moved and lined up for the photo shoots, I don't recall why that was important, but he made a big deal out of it.Part of the govt cover up, I think, but I don't recall exactly what they were covering up. The more I think of it, I was zoning out for most of the night. With the power off and lights dim, it was the first time all week that I didn't feel I was being watched, and since it wasn't an 'official' class session, I put my feet up, and half napped. I figured they were spinning Jonestown to stop anyone from accusing the way of potentially becoming the same thing, and govt conspiracies are always good for deflecting.

Mervyn Peake-"Titus Groan", "Gormenghast" If I were stuck on an island and could only bring 10 books-these would be 2 of them.

They moved near Digger O'Dell-he's the friendly undertaker.

I'm not saying there's a connection, and I'm not saying there isn't, but 6 months after going through the cleanse, I came down with ulcerative colitis, which was a living hell for 8 years, until I had major surgery.

Don't all gang up on me at once-but it never bothered me that most of the class was taken from other souces. If my fuzzy memory serves, vp admits in 'the way-living in love'(haha), that the class isnt original. His personal'claim to fame' was in putting it all together, tho he did claim to be original in the holy spirit field(which is what the whole snowstorm was supposed to be about) Otherwise, I am neither qualified or interested in seperating out what was stolen or not. It was a class taught mostly to people who knew nothing about the bible, and amid all the odd concepts,did provide some fundamental basics for those who cared. At least if I'm ever in a church where they use the Bible, and they tell you to turn to Hosea, I can get there faster than anyone. That's not exactly worth 12 years of hell in the way, but I'm trying to look at the positive. I also can't believe I sat through that sucker start to finish well over 40 times-the mental gymnastics I used to do keep awake!

I got involved in '75 at the University of Bridgeport. Bruce Mahone was limb leader, and shared an apt right off campus with Hugh Knowlton, Jim Daggon, and Larry Romaine-all great guys. Went wow, then returned in '77. Lived in Milford from '78-'82, when I moved out of state for good(but returned often to visit family.) Steve and Cathy Strzepek were running the show then, and my relationship with them was complex to say the least. I will say that I would love to see them again, which is more than I can say for many leaders.

I'm hoping that was it, I meant. Gotta start checking messages before I post for errors