Lovely post. I loved your line about still wanting to get a degree someday. How inspiring!
Sirguess,
Your artwork...wow.. that is beautiful. It looks just like i pictured it should look like, crawling outta that dark cage into something beautiful and bright.
Now, if you know anything about me... I LOVE MUSIC. ...So, this no music thingy for 4 months almost killed me. In a cage and with no music.
So there I was in my room, alone and I happen to put on a clock radio. Along comes some sr. corps person. They say... YOU know there's no listening to music. I said, 'Yes'. She walked away.
The next thing I knew, some big corps branch leader hauls me into Pat Lynn's office. It was over.
A la, what was their b*lls**t reason for not letting you listen to music (I'm assuming they meant secular music)? And why was this such a big infraction that you needed "talking to"?
I swear, every time I read crap like this, I thank God I never went into the Corps!
"…We were molded into these unrecognizable characters....I couldn`t be me, I couldn`t like the activities that had always interested me......I couldn`t be with the people who were important to me....I couldn`t live where I wanted to....The bars on the cage ...the bars that imprisoned us were forged from scriptures that we learned to love.
Our love for God, our instilled sense of duty to him is what created the seemingly insurmountible obsticals that prevented us from escaping the snare to freedom…"
So true, Rascal – so true! As I was reading this thread, I was reminded of a quote by Allan Bloom:
"The most successful tyranny is not the one that uses force to assure uniformity but the one that removes the awareness of other possibilities, that makes it seem inconceivable that other ways are viable, that removes the sense that there is an outside." (Closing of the American Mind)
I believe their reasoning for the 'no SECULAR music' policy was because they felt you needed to 'cleanse' yourself of all outside influences. An all immersed program was what they were striving for. God FIRST in all things you know.
I pitied those professional musicians who could not practice their instruments. Like someone who played in some symphony, where they HAD to practice every day or else their caliber of playing would be jeopardized.
4 months is a long time for someone who plays everyday.
Besides all the intimidation, I think the 'NO' music policy affected me the worse even though at the time I didn't realize it.
After that period of time, my desire for music was certainly squelched. I put it aside and realized that I musn't let it interfere with my commitment to God. I listened to music, but only through screened ears... certain musicians, groups, performers, music were taboo...labelled possessed or worse.
After 25 yrs I finally took my guitar outta' the closet and continued to play where I had left off many years before.
I recall quite vividly, that when I finally walked away from twi, there was a great feeling of liberation...
...I soon realized that I could be myself again! No more pretending, no more trying to be something that I wasn't and trying to mold myself into the image provided to me by others...
and sure, I've made some bad decisions in my life...but I would rather make my own bad decisions than to let some cult make them for me....and the decision that twi made for me...they were bad decisions.
So...20 years have passed since I left twi...and the difference between where I am today compared to my twi days?... ...there's no comparison. I have responsibilities in my life but I do not live in any cage. Year after year, the residual effects of waybrain dissolve from your thinking patterns...until one day you realize that you are outside looking in...and you are free from their influence...liberating :)
Well....I was one of those caged folks that gave up too much.
I left college in my third year - I was studying to be and illustrator. Now to be fair, K*n Br*wn DID advise me to hold off entering the corps until I had my degree. The hype was just too strong for me. I wanted to be on the fast track with God and I felt that He would help me make up what I would lose in terms of my training.
That was a lie. I entered the 10th corps and had to leave my art supplies behind - with a fellow artist in fact. Three months no drawing, no painting, no art whatsoever. Meanwhile, my art supplies were being used up and lost. When I finally graduated from the 11th(!) corps what I got back was a brush - ONE solitary brush that I never owned in the first place. Anyone who knows art supplies knows how expensive it can be to start over.
I took me nearly 20 years to get back to my first love and what I believe God truly called me to do - Teaching and painting.
Funny, isn't it, that many of us believed that the best way to serve God was to PUT DOWN the very things that He wanted us to do.
Now THAT'S manipulation folks! And that is the travesty of of a legacy that twi leaves in its wake.
A la, what was their b*lls**t reason for not letting you listen to music (I'm assuming they meant secular music)? And why was this such a big infraction that you needed "talking to"?
I swear, every time I read crap like this, I thank God I never went into the Corps!
dmill... it was the whole "Marxist Minstrels" thing... and it wasn't just for the corps, it was supposed to be for everyone... you were to listen to and buy Way Prod stuff... and I really liked Good Seed and Pressed Down especially and most of the Joyful Noise stuff... but you can only listen to so much of it over and over and over and over and...
"Funny, isn't it, that many of us believed that the best way to serve God was to PUT DOWN the very things that He wanted us to do."
I feel like this as well. So many passions squelched. I am so very happy for you that you have in your life something that brings you such joy and contentment.
You work certainly is an inspiration and it has moved me. Thank you for sharing your gift with us.
StrangeOne,
God all mighty... I think if I were to listen to another 'singing ladies' song, I'd hurl.
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sirguessalot
an offering, dear friends
and an expression of what our cage might look like when opening inside
btw...the Enneagram is another very useful typology
the "9 faces of God" it used to be called
peace,
+ODD
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A la prochaine
Act 2
Lovely post. I loved your line about still wanting to get a degree someday. How inspiring!
Sirguess,
Your artwork...wow.. that is beautiful. It looks just like i pictured it should look like, crawling outta that dark cage into something beautiful and bright.
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Kevlar2000
A la, what was their b*lls**t reason for not letting you listen to music (I'm assuming they meant secular music)? And why was this such a big infraction that you needed "talking to"?
I swear, every time I read crap like this, I thank God I never went into the Corps!
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T-Bone
So true, Rascal – so true! As I was reading this thread, I was reminded of a quote by Allan Bloom:
"The most successful tyranny is not the one that uses force to assure uniformity but the one that removes the awareness of other possibilities, that makes it seem inconceivable that other ways are viable, that removes the sense that there is an outside." (Closing of the American Mind)
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A la prochaine
Kevlar,
I believe their reasoning for the 'no SECULAR music' policy was because they felt you needed to 'cleanse' yourself of all outside influences. An all immersed program was what they were striving for. God FIRST in all things you know.
I pitied those professional musicians who could not practice their instruments. Like someone who played in some symphony, where they HAD to practice every day or else their caliber of playing would be jeopardized.
4 months is a long time for someone who plays everyday.
Besides all the intimidation, I think the 'NO' music policy affected me the worse even though at the time I didn't realize it.
After that period of time, my desire for music was certainly squelched. I put it aside and realized that I musn't let it interfere with my commitment to God. I listened to music, but only through screened ears... certain musicians, groups, performers, music were taboo...labelled possessed or worse.
After 25 yrs I finally took my guitar outta' the closet and continued to play where I had left off many years before.
Just another cage that I finally walked out of.
Sirguess' painting keeps coming back to mind.
: )
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GrouchoMarxJr
I recall quite vividly, that when I finally walked away from twi, there was a great feeling of liberation...
...I soon realized that I could be myself again! No more pretending, no more trying to be something that I wasn't and trying to mold myself into the image provided to me by others...
and sure, I've made some bad decisions in my life...but I would rather make my own bad decisions than to let some cult make them for me....and the decision that twi made for me...they were bad decisions.
So...20 years have passed since I left twi...and the difference between where I am today compared to my twi days?...
...there's no comparison. I have responsibilities in my life but I do not live in any cage. Year after year, the residual effects of waybrain dissolve from your thinking patterns...until one day you realize that you are outside looking in...and you are free from their influence...liberating :)
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doojable
Well....I was one of those caged folks that gave up too much.
I left college in my third year - I was studying to be and illustrator. Now to be fair, K*n Br*wn DID advise me to hold off entering the corps until I had my degree. The hype was just too strong for me. I wanted to be on the fast track with God and I felt that He would help me make up what I would lose in terms of my training.
That was a lie. I entered the 10th corps and had to leave my art supplies behind - with a fellow artist in fact. Three months no drawing, no painting, no art whatsoever. Meanwhile, my art supplies were being used up and lost. When I finally graduated from the 11th(!) corps what I got back was a brush - ONE solitary brush that I never owned in the first place. Anyone who knows art supplies knows how expensive it can be to start over.
I took me nearly 20 years to get back to my first love and what I believe God truly called me to do - Teaching and painting.
Funny, isn't it, that many of us believed that the best way to serve God was to PUT DOWN the very things that He wanted us to do.
Now THAT'S manipulation folks! And that is the travesty of of a legacy that twi leaves in its wake.
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Tom Strange
dmill... it was the whole "Marxist Minstrels" thing... and it wasn't just for the corps, it was supposed to be for everyone... you were to listen to and buy Way Prod stuff... and I really liked Good Seed and Pressed Down especially and most of the Joyful Noise stuff... but you can only listen to so much of it over and over and over and over and...
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A la prochaine
Dooj,
I love this line you wrote:
"Funny, isn't it, that many of us believed that the best way to serve God was to PUT DOWN the very things that He wanted us to do."
I feel like this as well. So many passions squelched. I am so very happy for you that you have in your life something that brings you such joy and contentment.
You work certainly is an inspiration and it has moved me. Thank you for sharing your gift with us.
StrangeOne,
God all mighty... I think if I were to listen to another 'singing ladies' song, I'd hurl.
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