Groucho mentioned that the "favored" Corps tended to get the assignments that they wanted.
So were you "favored or "unfavored"? When did you find out?
I remember being disappointed that the person I sponsored always seemed be working food services at the ROA. He didn't seem very "blessed" about it either. I'm guessing he was "unfavored".
The economy that exists in "the world" was no different in the Corps.
If one was extremely talented, extremely beautiful, extremely educated, or extremely wealthy doors opened that remained closed to the great unwashed.
True enough...
...but if you were one of the "great unwashed", many times your future in twi depended on whether or not you were an arse kisser...and if you dared to look them in the eye and disagree with them, you were consigned to obscurity.
An "influential" clergy guy at Emporia tried to pry into my sex life (I was married at the time), with no reason to do so...he asked me very personal questions with a stupid grin on his face...I told him it was none of his damn business...and...
the next day, I was sent to Rome City to pick cherries, slaughter chickens, and clean sludge out of tanks... for 4 months.
I believe that the only revelation that twi leaders ever got was made up baloney...
How true THAT is...at Emporia, my job was to walk around the campus with a screw driver in my hand looking for chairs that had loose nuts...as interesting and as spiritually enriching as it was, I eventually ran out of chairs with loose nuts...I tightened them all...I was then told to re-trace my steps and check them all again...I was thrilled at the opprotunity to finally receive the spiritual training that I had been anticipating for so long...
...one day a tile cracked on the floor of the cafeteria...I was given the awsome priviledge and responsibility to replace it...I carefully and prayerfully worked, diggin out the old tile fragments and cleaning the recessed area...I then put in a supple amount of portland cement and then placed the new tile into the wet cement...I cleaned off the new tile and then erected a small barrier around it, consisting of 3 small cones and some yellow safety ribbon...
...at dinner that night, as I thankfully ate my beansprouts, I glanced over at my handiwork and I beamed with pride...
Yes...Emporia was a wonderful experience...about the same as getting a root canal.
How true THAT is...at Emporia, my job was to walk around the campus with a screw driver in my hand looking for chairs that had loose nuts...as interesting and as spiritually enriching as it was, I eventually ran out of chairs with loose nuts...I tightened them all...I was then told to re-trace my steps and check them all again...I was thrilled at the opprotunity to finally receive the spiritual training that I had been anticipating for so long...
You apparently didn't get all the loose nuts. LCM was loose and nutty. <_<
I was not one of the "favored"... but I don't think "unfavored" is the right term for the rest of us. Maybe, "ignored" would be better. You were just there to do the daily grunt work and take the classes.
Sometimes the grunt work accomplished things -- like draining the pond behind the Wierwille barn and then scraping 20 years of silt and muck off the bottom with bucket brigades until we hit clay and they filled it all back up with water again.
And sometimes it didn't -- like cleaning the dorm's bathrooms for the second time each day when most everyone was gone and they'd hardly been touched since the first daily cleaning!
One thing some never realized was it wasn't always the "favored" that got what they wanted, as much as it was those who complained and stood their ground. Whoever yelled the loudest about their paycheck at a root locale, got paid the highest. Whoever kept nagging about wanting to leave HQ and go on the field were put on the field.. (Trust me, no one wanted to stay at a root locale unless they had never been, and once there, realized they didn't want to be!).
Then there were those who were unwilling to complain, and they just took whatever was given them.. And those were the favored.. Favored with all the best jobs like the honey wagon, favored with all the best jobs at the root locales.. Oh yeah, they were favored since they wouldn't put up a fight!
I can't say I was favored. But they sure didn't like me doing work or something, and I hated that!! One day while working at HQ there was a need for a hole to be dug, something I didn't normally do, but sure, let me borrow tools from maintenance and I dug it. Seems some noticed me working, and they didn't think I ought to be doing it myself and got some other people to help. Then later someone from the President cabinet came and told me next time not to go doing this, and if I needed it done, either get someone else, or hire an outside company to do it, but I was more important to them than doing manual labor.. Only problem is I love work! I hate sitting in offices and going to boring meetings, and doing conferences. It was always a waste of my freakin time! Course then later I complained about it and asked to be moved on the field. Course they didn't like that. But hey, I like to complain. So I complained till they said ok, you're going!
Trust me.. If you yelled loud enough, they gave you what you wanted to some extent. Maybe not give you the Trunk Coord's job, but they sure wasn't going to mess with ya.
Our first assignment was to go to the University of Chicago in 1978. Not something we asked for, but something vpw wanted us to do so he could begin to build his "research team," which would have all the credibility and legitimate credentials he lacked. Over the next few years, several other people were assigned to go to U of C. Thankfully, because school was our assignment and for at least two of those years I was the south side branch coordinator while my husband was a student, I could run things my own way in the area and help the area avoid a lot of the "mandatory" crap other people had to swallow. People sort of left us alone to do it that way without question since our assignment was directly from vpw. I'd say that was definitely "favored" status. Then, we were assigned to HQ in 1982, which had been our dream.
Once there, to our horror, disappointment, and dismay, we discovered all kinds of corruption at the root level. I began to vociferously rebel against and confront it at the trustee level. When it was clear there was not a godly response, Geek and I decided to not accept a corps assignment at HQ the next year. We resigned and returned to Chicago.
When we got back, we tried to communicate what we had discovered to the leadership in Chicago. Evidently we had been blackballed, no one took us seriously, and although "mark and avoid" was off in the future, people stopped coming over. Then one day a WOW we had helped when we first got there came over and said she wanted to find out from us what was going on. All the WOWs had been told NOT to come to our house. God bless her, she knew it was a bunch of BS and was the ONLY person in the entire branch who had the guts to find out for herself and ask us directly. So we told her frankly.
We pretty much had a "disgraced" status after that for many years. Only after the big fallout after vpw's death and LCM began to lose his marbles did the Chicago branch leader (whom we had tried to warn and who blackballed us in the city) and LCM come looking to us for help.
I've heard some stories like this, Jonny. Knowing what I know now, I just have to wonder what that gal was being punished for.
Then I wonder if she was forced into compliance.
Yes, it's speculation on my part - but it is informed speculation. I realize you can't or won't assume, but it still causes me to scratch my head and wonder.
Yes, it is in fact speculation on your part. But since I knew the gal well, it seemed to me that the honey wagon job was perfect for her. The sewage deluge in the face was pretty gross, but, as they say, some times "sheet happens", and that certainly was no one's fault but her own...
I can't say I was favored. But they sure didn't like me doing work or something, and I hated that!! One day while working at HQ there was a need for a hole to be dug, something I didn't normally do, but sure, let me borrow tools from maintenance and I dug it. Seems some noticed me working, and they didn't think I ought to be doing it myself and got some other people to help. Then later someone from the President cabinet came and told me next time not to go doing this, and if I needed it done, either get someone else, or hire an outside company to do it, but I was more important to them than doing manual labor.. Only problem is I love work! I hate sitting in offices and going to boring meetings, and doing conferences. It was always a waste of my freakin time! Course then later I complained about it and asked to be moved on the field. Course they didn't like that. But hey, I like to complain. So I complained till they said ok, you're going!
You got off easy. Be glad that "Lord" Mausoff didn't catch you digging a hole in his precious grounds.
Ok, so what we got is the favored, the unfavored, the ignored and the 'please shut them up' catagories. Hmmm...I think I kinda got a taste (thankfully not a honey wagon taste) of all of them. At first I was definately unfavored, being the arch nemesis of Kruddy McNutt will do that to a person. But then folks started seeing what a gem she really was and I started getting treated a bit better.
Then I was one of the few undamaged survivors (umm..better known as witnesses to the defense) from one of the disasterous LEAD adventures. So my popularity rose again and I got to work two jobs at Corps Week and the Rock, I got to work making WOW burgers, which was a lot of fun and I worked back stage as well.
But then I blew it and started asking questions...got myself kicked out...and then was asked to be an Area Coordinator. How does that happen? When the new Limb bozo showed up and he decided I wasnt submissive enough and I was asked politely to step down. I didnt like the job after all and certainly didn't want to work for him...so I tendered my resignation and went back to school.
I guess I got the whole enchilada as well Catcup.
Groucho....that was hysterical!
You apparently didn't get all the loose nuts. LCM was loose and nutty. <_<
Ya but I dont recall him sitting in too many of those oh so comfortable chairs.
I was favored until I played possum in the back of the motorcoach. Damn, who knows, I could have been ordained....
-
-
-
"Possums are famous for "playing dead" when threatened, but this isn't quite accurate. They are not 'playing' dead at all: the possum goes into shock when particularly stressed."
Was there ever a supposed biblical basis for this system of lay ministry work? Or a biblical basis for TWI even having the authority to assign jobs to the faithful?
"Possums are famous for "playing dead" when threatened, but this isn't quite accurate. They are not 'playing' dead at all: the possum goes into shock when particularly stressed."
Thanks for that science tidbit Excathedra ... :)
I can't directly relate to your level of stress then, but it does seem the constant push to stay in fellowship .. to move the word piffle, may have lead us to some sort of stress induced altered state.
I can't figure another good reason why we would accept assignments for so many years. For me it was only my two WOW years and the two in residence years where I went where I was told, but that is a lot.
Yes I'm sure you could have been ordained ... but aren't you glad you were not? Better to be unfavored ...
Recommended Posts
WhiteDove
So I guess that makes you an unfavored sponser
Link to comment
Share on other sites
Yanagisawa
The economy that exists in "the world" was no different in the Corps.
If one was extremely talented, extremely beautiful, extremely educated, or extremely wealthy doors opened that remained closed to the great unwashed.
Link to comment
Share on other sites
polar bear
For the most part it was those who bent over far enough to kiss the MOGs a** who got ahead.
There were some with great ability and great heart who were simply used to further the corporation. They all got out.
Some lurk around here at times. When you read their posts you know how fortunate we are to hear what they have to say.
Link to comment
Share on other sites
GrouchoMarxJr
True enough...
...but if you were one of the "great unwashed", many times your future in twi depended on whether or not you were an arse kisser...and if you dared to look them in the eye and disagree with them, you were consigned to obscurity.
An "influential" clergy guy at Emporia tried to pry into my sex life (I was married at the time), with no reason to do so...he asked me very personal questions with a stupid grin on his face...I told him it was none of his damn business...and...
the next day, I was sent to Rome City to pick cherries, slaughter chickens, and clean sludge out of tanks... for 4 months.
I believe that the only revelation that twi leaders ever got was made up baloney...
Link to comment
Share on other sites
fooledagainII
I guess if you found yourself working on the "honey wagon" at the rock... my guess was you were on the unfavored list.
Link to comment
Share on other sites
Linda Z
Groucho said:
From what I saw of Emporia, that was a step up. At least you were doing real work and not just moving
piles of rocks back and forth.
Link to comment
Share on other sites
GrouchoMarxJr
How true THAT is...at Emporia, my job was to walk around the campus with a screw driver in my hand looking for chairs that had loose nuts...as interesting and as spiritually enriching as it was, I eventually ran out of chairs with loose nuts...I tightened them all...I was then told to re-trace my steps and check them all again...I was thrilled at the opprotunity to finally receive the spiritual training that I had been anticipating for so long...
...one day a tile cracked on the floor of the cafeteria...I was given the awsome priviledge and responsibility to replace it...I carefully and prayerfully worked, diggin out the old tile fragments and cleaning the recessed area...I then put in a supple amount of portland cement and then placed the new tile into the wet cement...I cleaned off the new tile and then erected a small barrier around it, consisting of 3 small cones and some yellow safety ribbon...
...at dinner that night, as I thankfully ate my beansprouts, I glanced over at my handiwork and I beamed with pride...
Yes...Emporia was a wonderful experience...about the same as getting a root canal.
Link to comment
Share on other sites
doojable
You apparently didn't get all the loose nuts. LCM was loose and nutty. <_<
Edited by doojableLink to comment
Share on other sites
waysider
We did the same thing in FLO, except the rocks were already residing, happily undisturbed, at the bottom of a creek.
(Waist deep at some parts.)
But,at least the leeches and water snakes found it entertaining.
Link to comment
Share on other sites
TheHighWay
I was not one of the "favored"... but I don't think "unfavored" is the right term for the rest of us. Maybe, "ignored" would be better. You were just there to do the daily grunt work and take the classes.
Sometimes the grunt work accomplished things -- like draining the pond behind the Wierwille barn and then scraping 20 years of silt and muck off the bottom with bucket brigades until we hit clay and they filled it all back up with water again.
And sometimes it didn't -- like cleaning the dorm's bathrooms for the second time each day when most everyone was gone and they'd hardly been touched since the first daily cleaning!
Link to comment
Share on other sites
TrustAndObey
One thing some never realized was it wasn't always the "favored" that got what they wanted, as much as it was those who complained and stood their ground. Whoever yelled the loudest about their paycheck at a root locale, got paid the highest. Whoever kept nagging about wanting to leave HQ and go on the field were put on the field.. (Trust me, no one wanted to stay at a root locale unless they had never been, and once there, realized they didn't want to be!).
Then there were those who were unwilling to complain, and they just took whatever was given them.. And those were the favored.. Favored with all the best jobs like the honey wagon, favored with all the best jobs at the root locales.. Oh yeah, they were favored since they wouldn't put up a fight!
I can't say I was favored. But they sure didn't like me doing work or something, and I hated that!! One day while working at HQ there was a need for a hole to be dug, something I didn't normally do, but sure, let me borrow tools from maintenance and I dug it. Seems some noticed me working, and they didn't think I ought to be doing it myself and got some other people to help. Then later someone from the President cabinet came and told me next time not to go doing this, and if I needed it done, either get someone else, or hire an outside company to do it, but I was more important to them than doing manual labor.. Only problem is I love work! I hate sitting in offices and going to boring meetings, and doing conferences. It was always a waste of my freakin time! Course then later I complained about it and asked to be moved on the field. Course they didn't like that. But hey, I like to complain. So I complained till they said ok, you're going!
Trust me.. If you yelled loud enough, they gave you what you wanted to some extent. Maybe not give you the Trunk Coord's job, but they sure wasn't going to mess with ya.
Link to comment
Share on other sites
Catcup
Our first assignment was to go to the University of Chicago in 1978. Not something we asked for, but something vpw wanted us to do so he could begin to build his "research team," which would have all the credibility and legitimate credentials he lacked. Over the next few years, several other people were assigned to go to U of C. Thankfully, because school was our assignment and for at least two of those years I was the south side branch coordinator while my husband was a student, I could run things my own way in the area and help the area avoid a lot of the "mandatory" crap other people had to swallow. People sort of left us alone to do it that way without question since our assignment was directly from vpw. I'd say that was definitely "favored" status. Then, we were assigned to HQ in 1982, which had been our dream.
Once there, to our horror, disappointment, and dismay, we discovered all kinds of corruption at the root level. I began to vociferously rebel against and confront it at the trustee level. When it was clear there was not a godly response, Geek and I decided to not accept a corps assignment at HQ the next year. We resigned and returned to Chicago.
When we got back, we tried to communicate what we had discovered to the leadership in Chicago. Evidently we had been blackballed, no one took us seriously, and although "mark and avoid" was off in the future, people stopped coming over. Then one day a WOW we had helped when we first got there came over and said she wanted to find out from us what was going on. All the WOWs had been told NOT to come to our house. God bless her, she knew it was a bunch of BS and was the ONLY person in the entire branch who had the guts to find out for herself and ask us directly. So we told her frankly.
We pretty much had a "disgraced" status after that for many years. Only after the big fallout after vpw's death and LCM began to lose his marbles did the Chicago branch leader (whom we had tried to warn and who blackballed us in the city) and LCM come looking to us for help.
So we've been on both sides of that fence.
Edited by CatcupLink to comment
Share on other sites
J0nny Ling0
Actually, even though I was never a high level leader, I worked the honey wagon, yet I received three assignments that I requested, assignments that I in fact enjoyed, the last one being Alaska. In fact, the honey wagon was a kick in the pants. We made fun out of the job, a job that needed to be done, for as we know, everyone, if they are alive, needs to deposit their intake somewhere. During Living Victoriously and the Rock one year, when I did it, we used to lie on top of the wagon as we passed by the teaching tent or the food tents and smile and wave to the people as if we were on a parade float, making the good people who noticed laugh as were drove by. I guess we were making the best out of a bad situation. There was this one gal on the crew, a real beauty who had always been assigned back stage of the Big Top "doing stage make up and hair" for VP and the rest of the "VIP"s year after year. But that year, she was assigned to the honey wagon, and it was just so funny to see how she acted as if she was "above it all" to be doing such a heinous thing. She talked on and on about her friendship with all the "higher ups", and all of that. One day, when she was pulling the slide valve on what she mistakenly thought was the "gray water" (non sewage) pipe, she pulled the slide valve on the sewage pipe that had not had a suction hose to the honey wagon on it. The ending result was that she got a full blast of sewage in the face and down the front of her lovely "décolletage". Spitting and coughing, and ready to puke, she ran off to the showers. I hate confess it (we knew we were bad), but we all grinned (especially the other women), at what we considered "poetic justice". Later I went and found her and coaxed her out of her RV and back to the job. It took awhile though. She kept saying; "I'm not going back! I'm a hair dresser! I do make up! I don't work no forkin .... wagon"! But eventually she came back, and she did end up back stage the next year and the next and so on, for she was good at what she did. Some fun times, those, but I just guess it depends on your perspective I 'spose...
Link to comment
Share on other sites
doojable
I've heard some stories like this, Jonny. Knowing what I know now, I just have to wonder what that gal was being punished for.
Then I wonder if she was forced into compliance.
Yes, it's speculation on my part - but it is informed speculation. I realize you can't or won't assume, but it still causes me to scratch my head and wonder.
Link to comment
Share on other sites
J0nny Ling0
Yes, it is in fact speculation on your part. But since I knew the gal well, it seemed to me that the honey wagon job was perfect for her. The sewage deluge in the face was pretty gross, but, as they say, some times "sheet happens", and that certainly was no one's fault but her own...
Link to comment
Share on other sites
Jim
You got off easy. Be glad that "Lord" Mausoff didn't catch you digging a hole in his precious grounds.
Link to comment
Share on other sites
Eyesopen
Ok, so what we got is the favored, the unfavored, the ignored and the 'please shut them up' catagories. Hmmm...I think I kinda got a taste (thankfully not a honey wagon taste) of all of them. At first I was definately unfavored, being the arch nemesis of Kruddy McNutt will do that to a person. But then folks started seeing what a gem she really was and I started getting treated a bit better.
Then I was one of the few undamaged survivors (umm..better known as witnesses to the defense) from one of the disasterous LEAD adventures. So my popularity rose again and I got to work two jobs at Corps Week and the Rock, I got to work making WOW burgers, which was a lot of fun and I worked back stage as well.
But then I blew it and started asking questions...got myself kicked out...and then was asked to be an Area Coordinator. How does that happen? When the new Limb bozo showed up and he decided I wasnt submissive enough and I was asked politely to step down. I didnt like the job after all and certainly didn't want to work for him...so I tendered my resignation and went back to school.
I guess I got the whole enchilada as well Catcup.
Groucho....that was hysterical!
Ya but I dont recall him sitting in too many of those oh so comfortable chairs.
Edited by EyesopenLink to comment
Share on other sites
cheranne
I thought you meant "regular or extra crispy" I think people were regular and then they turned EXTRA
CRISPY as time went on.
Hey (eyes)I liked the wowburger!
Link to comment
Share on other sites
excathedra
I was favored until I played possum in the back of the motorcoach. Damn, who knows, I could have been ordained....
-
-
-
"Possums are famous for "playing dead" when threatened, but this isn't quite accurate. They are not 'playing' dead at all: the possum goes into shock when particularly stressed."
Link to comment
Share on other sites
GrouchoMarxJr
Now why doesn't THAT surprise me...
I guess someone thought you were the man for the job...
I can hear the backroom meeting now..."Let's put Lingo on the sh* t wagon"...everyone laughs and the assignment is a done deal...
did they call you Rev. Honeywagon?
by the way...welcome back Jonny...
Edited by GrouchoMarxJrLink to comment
Share on other sites
Eyesopen
One thing you can say about the Corps...we did know how to get things done and often have fun doing it...despite what the boss said.
Link to comment
Share on other sites
Brushstroke
Was there ever a supposed biblical basis for this system of lay ministry work? Or a biblical basis for TWI even having the authority to assign jobs to the faithful?
Link to comment
Share on other sites
J0nny Ling0
Well Groucho, I see that , well, I'll just edit this. I hope you have a nice and sunny Sunday today...
Edited by Jonny LingoLink to comment
Share on other sites
rhino
Thanks for that science tidbit Excathedra ... :)
I can't directly relate to your level of stress then, but it does seem the constant push to stay in fellowship .. to move the word piffle, may have lead us to some sort of stress induced altered state.
I can't figure another good reason why we would accept assignments for so many years. For me it was only my two WOW years and the two in residence years where I went where I was told, but that is a lot.
Yes I'm sure you could have been ordained ... but aren't you glad you were not? Better to be unfavored ...
Link to comment
Share on other sites
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.