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Self - Loathing is my middle name. :biglaugh:

me too, on more than one level..

:biglaugh:

As far as the final disposal of my physical body. I don't care how cheap it is.

I've told some.. just prop me up in a folding chair in the middle of the woods somewhere.. :biglaugh:

well, true story.

OldSkool.....was Mrs. buried next to vp?

How can we really be sure?

:biglaugh:

I mean, I wasn't invited to the funeral, or invited to the burial. Not that it really makes much of a difference in the cosmic scheme of things..

but if I were da way..

I'd figure out some way to return the casket to the seller, without an inhabitant.

:biglaugh:

Sowy. Its my thread.. derail as you wish my friends.. I don't thin it will really get off the track, whatever that is..

:biglaugh:

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Well, it's dammed hard enough to put together a life that's meaningful to our progeny that can have lasting effect past our own lifetimes. Today we capture so much of it - an archiving issue is a coming for those who have a precious 50,000 photos stored somewhere. No one will have time to go through them, if they want to. But they'll be "there" for anyone who does and has the time and inclination.

The meaningful stuff of value will be held on to and the stuff that won't fit into the next garage or closet or shelf will just go the way of all flesh. Hmmmmmmmm.....where have I read that before?

For me the value of things in my life aren't attached solely to the value that others place on them. What I invest into something gives it it's value. Those closest to me know that. My kids will look at a guitar someday and it will have a value, as a collectible. I hope they hold it and feel the music that's been made with it. Or remember the times I sat and deedled on it endlessly on the couch watching TV.

The value of the Way - things like the property, the trailers, the roads - those things in and of themselves have little value regardless of who views them or what they think of them or the Way.

Probably the single most valuable asset we have in life is time. No one else will fully appreciate the investment of another's time the same way as that person does. We share it to the degree that we've shared that time together. If it was spent wisely and was meaningful to me that will never change, that value will always be the same - to me.

For me that's the weave in the fabric of the things we pass on to each other as we come and go in this life. LIke our own stuff everything comes and goes in time, even the things we try to hold on to from those who came before. Sooner or later it passes, it has to, the world simply won't hold it all in storage.

There is however lots of storage in our minds, our hearts. It stacks up, folds in, melds, and becomes the fossil fuel of future generations. "The future has a past". My goal is to make some of mine worth remembering to someone down the line, a little fuel for the next fire.

And yeah, the cheap trailers and the b s, etc. etc. as noted and stated, cheap cheap cheap. Yeah, all of that - box checked.

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It always amazed me the emphasis placed on "proper stewardship" of Way resources, but the complete lack of respect for items of sentimental value owned by individuals in twi. So many many times I was told to "burn the chaff" when it came to keepsakes. Jewlery given by a passed relative - get rid of it if you don't wear it (it can harbor devil spirits); high school yearbooks; pictures of family members and friends that no longer stood "on the Word"... So many times I was told that if I hadn't used an item in a year I should toss it out. Burn the chaff... Everything carries something (meaning everything not having to do with twi had a devil spirit attached.). Now, looking back with a clearer head I realize that this served the purpose of removing all reminders of anything rated to non-Way life. It was another method of control.

My family has a great many heirlooms from more than a hundred years ago, and I am thankful I didn't get rid of the ones i had despite encouragement and pressure from leadership. And I am thankful my grandmothers didn't pass away until after I left twi. Now I have important mementos of them that might have been tossed away otherwise. I mean, who needs a Book of Common Prayer that came over from England on a boat with your great great great great aunt, anyway? And who needs a cloak with hidden pockets that a great great great grandmother smuggled supplies to Union soldiers in? And who would possibly find any value in a poem written by a great great grandfather to your great great grandmother proposing marriage? I mean, has to be a lot of devil spirits just waiting to possess you in those items, right?

Twi wanted us to wipe out our past while lauding the Weirwille family's history to the stars.

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It always amazed me the emphasis placed on "proper stewardship" of Way resources, but the complete lack of respect for items of sentimental value owned by individuals in twi. So many many times I was told to "burn the chaff" when it came to keepsakes. Jewlery given by a passed relative - get rid of it if you don't wear it (it can harbor devil spirits); high school yearbooks; pictures of family members and friends that no longer stood "on the Word"... So many times I was told that if I hadn't used an item in a year I should toss it out. Burn the chaff... Everything carries something (meaning everything not having to do with twi had a devil spirit attached.). Now, looking back with a clearer head I realize that this served the purpose of removing all reminders of anything rated to non-Way life. It was another method of control.

Sometimes I think it's the little things that show the most. The overall drive to "burn the chaff" getting rid of "old man things" promoted by TWI. It's the dispensing of one's identity and the substitution of the group identity. Of course people by nature will get rid of things attached to bad memories, but this is different. The whole symbolism manipulated by the terms "old man" and "new man" in TWI's use are very unhealthy. There is strength in heritage, family, past accomplishments, memories.

When you combine the over-emphasis on "likemindedness" - an ingrained "group-think" with the complete lack of care of the individual shown by TWI, it's a very damaging combination.

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Twi wanted us to wipe out our past while lauding the Weirwille family's history to the stars.

Yep!.....that's right.

Hence, the exodus from twi. When many were coming of age that ONE'S OWN FAMILY MATTERED.....kids, school, activities,

pictures, awards, memories, family vacations, etc.....the pushback began in earnest. Nothing like a case of reality

to smack one upside the head.

The last ten years of wierwille's narcisstic life.....he was trying to establish a wierwille legacy. When Harry died

in 1977, the following 1978 March 17th "Burn the Chaff Day" was renamed to "Uncle Harry Day" (iirc).

With each passing year......I more clearly see that it had NOTHING to do with christianity.

The double-standard of elitism....."Good for thee, but not for me".....is the message. Wierwille preached this supposed

scripture-centered life, yet he was striving with every ounce of strength to establish a wierwille-centered legacy.

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Yep!.....that's right.

Hence, the exodus from twi. When many were coming of age that ONE'S OWN FAMILY MATTERED.....kids, school, activities,

pictures, awards, memories, family vacations, etc.....the pushback began in earnest. Nothing like a case of reality

to smack one upside the head.

It occurs to me that VP and his family never wanted for anything during TWI years, and never did anything on the cheap for themselves. As for the rest of us, it was beater cars, living in cheap rentals, blowing our nose with toilet paper to save money on kleenex, recycled coffee grounds, provide TWI with free labor, and always abundantly share what little money we had. VP saw to it that he had all the power he could ever need to have a full and abundant life.

Hey, there was a class about that, wasn't there?!

The purpose of PFAL was to funnel all the ministry power to VP, in order to give VP a very abundant life.

Rather ballsy of him to name that class after his own personal goals in life.

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Reminds me of the Orange Book's introduction.

""Introduction: the Abundant Life.

Jesus' proclamation as recorded in John 10:10 is the foundational

Scripture for this book.

...I am come that they [believers] might have life, and that

they might have it more abundantly.

This verse literally changed my life. My wife and I began in

the Christian ministry, plodding ahead with the things of God,

but somehow we lacked an abundant life.

Then one time I was especially alerted when I read from the

Word of God that Jesus said He had come to give us life more

abundant. I was startled into awareness. As I looked about me

at communities where I had served and among the ministers with

whom I had worked, the abundant life was frequently not

evident. In contrast to these Christian people, I could see that

the secular world of non-Christians were manifesting a more

abundant life than were members of the Church. Thus I

earnestly began to pursue the question:

'If Jesus Christ came that men and women might have a

MORE ABUNDANT LIFE, then why is it that the Christian

believers do not manifest even an ABUNDANT LIFE?'

I believe most people would be thankful if they ever lived

an abundant life; but The Word says Jesus Christ came that

we might have life not just abundant, but more abundant.

If His Word is not reliable here in John 10:10, how can we

trust it anywhere else? But, on the other hand, if

Jesus told the truth, if He meant what He said and said what

He meant in this declaration, then surely there must be

keys, signposts, to guide us to the understanding and the

receiving of this life which is more than abundant.

This book, POWER FOR ABUNDANT LIVING, is one way of

showing interested people the abundany life which Jesus

Christ lived and which He came to make available to

believers as it is revealed in the Word of God.

This is a book containing Biblical keys. The contents herein

do not teach the Scriptures from Genesis 1:1 to

Revelation 22:21; rather, it is designed to set before the

reader the basic keys in the Word of God so that

Genesis to Revelation will unfold and so that the

abundant life which Jesus Christ came to make available will

become evident to those who want to appropriate

God's abundance to their lives. "

===========

That is the ENTIRE introduction.

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Initially, Wierwille pitched his product (PFAL) by implying that it offered an avenue of attaining material abundance. When it started to become apparent that this claim was invalid, The Way, though various teachings in classes, such as DWA, RM, AC, etc., revised this promise to say that the abundance is really spiritual, not material. We, according to Way theology, would need to speak in tongues, renew our minds and become proficient in operating the "law of believing" in order to obtain the abundant life.

All the while, the original claim was sitting ("like a duck") right there in the introduction to PFAL.

In contrast to these Christian people, I could see that

the secular world of non-Christians were manifesting a more

abundant life than were members of the Church.

So, what did Wierwile see? Did he see these people speaking in tongues, renewing their minds, practicing "believing"?

No. He saw that other people had material abundance and promised to show us how we could have it, too.

Spiritual, shmeritual. Pffft!

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I hope they hold it and feel the music that's been made with it.

I really hope that they hold it and feel the music that YOU have made with it..

how come graves had to be dug by hand?

that is a very good question..

I don't want my grave dug by hands.. no matter how cheap it is..

let me dissolve in the sunset somewhere.. no way or way wanabes funeral..

but that is what they will do.

I wish I could come back to life, probably not in some cheap coffin..

:biglaugh:

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Because they don't want to tear up the grass, as far as I remember.

Good frucking grief.

This is a perfect example of using people and loving things. Stupid, ridiculous... If it had been for some poetic reason, like the human beings who this man of God helped in his life should lay his body to rest (and his wife's body, too) instead of impersonal machines... I could see that. But not wanting to disturb the grass??

WTF?

(the above post does not indicate my feelings towards VP... He was an evil, mean man. Any help he gave to his fellow human beings was an unintended side effect of his self-serving lusts.)

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It always amazed me the emphasis placed on "proper stewardship" of Way resources, but the complete lack of respect for items of sentimental value owned by individuals in twi.

(snip)

I know YOUR point was how they wanted us to be sentimental ONLY ABOUT TWI AND VPW,

while dropping everything else in our lives-family, friends, memories...

However,

I wanted to point out "the emphasis placed on 'proper stewardship'"

was NOTHING OF THE KIND-

it was ALL about CHEAPNESS.

I'm still in favor of getting the most for my dollar but sometimes that means you

spend more to get better quality.

Which is better stewardship-

twi's way of getting the absolute cheapest for everything and having it work

poorly and break down soon,

or my way of getting the more durable and usable, and paying a bit more for it?

Even if I pay 20% more, I don't have to spend it all over again a short time

later because it broke down.

GOOD STEWARDSHIP takes PLANNING. It includes asking what the differences are

in quality and upkeep and asking if the difference warrants paying more or

paying less. Ever look at your audiotapes from twi? They use INCREDIBLY

cheap tapes, far lower than the street-level regulars. (I generally recopied

to Chromium Oxide, which meant I could REPLAY a tape A LOT and had much

better quality- but with theirs as source tapes I couldn't IMPROVE the quality,

of course.) I've used standard ones as well. Gartmore used standard ones,

and that made a big difference for the person actually USING THE TAPE.

(Personally, I think that was a good idea and that their onsite library

could have used CrO2 tapes for replay value, but that's me.)

Yes, if twi had bought in bulk, the standard ones would have been a lot

cheaper. However, they bought incredibly cheap ones in bulk, possibly

buying out the stock nobody else wanted to use, and selling them to us.

(twi level are 3 for a dollar, RETAIL. The regulars were retail for about $2

and the quality difference is tremendous.)

vpw wanted a fancy log cabin, and didn't use GOOD STEWARDSHIP. He wanted something

and never consulted how to do it well or even if it was a good idea.

(It was a STUPID idea.) He had it done wastefully, and with the wrong materials,

so it ROTTED and needed extensive repairs and upkeep.

Then he turned around and lectured the others about good stewardship and how

they needed to do things more cheaply and take care of what they had.

This shouldn't be much of a surprise. We now know he was a hypocrite and didn't

know much about actual business, or most of the things he put himself forth as

an expert on.

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(Personally, I think that was a good idea and that their onsite library

could have used CrO2 tapes for replay value, but that's me.)

yeah. It (Cr02 tapes) was far better, less noise technology. But who cares what we think..

I mean if you are going analog.. Cr02 was the best, wasn't it.

Ah.. is this off topic? I think not.. just another example of Cheapness Dark red reel to reel tapes.. why do anything different.. it COSTS a little more per reel, or cassette..

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Back in the day. I would copy LP's to Chromium cassettes. Ninety minute cassettes were nice. You could fit both sides of any album on one of these..

I liked the idea. Play the LP once, and then play it again and again, with no more wear..

oh. Then dubbing. That was fun. Two machines.. makes it easy to produce a guitar symphony..

Joe Walsh was a lot better at this than I.

What I found was.. if you started with cheap material, i.e. cheap tapes.. after three or four dubs the final result sounded kinda harsh and nasty.. but with the chromium tapes and such.

and if you had to run cheap open reels.. run them at 7/1/2 inches per second. Higher quality.. seemed to help..

I guess the big sixteen track machines let you lay down lines one one track at a time, leaving the rest untouched. No loss in duplication, or copying..

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..how come graves had to be dug by hand?

Because they don't want to tear up the grass, as far as I remember.

For a bunch of people who claimed to excel at rural living, they don't seem to have been too bright. It's a common procedure to lay down sheets of thick plywood and drive your backhoe across them to preserve the turf. Oh, wait, I forgot. Plywood costs money. Never mind.

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For a bunch of people who claimed to excel at rural living, they don't seem to have been too bright. It's a common procedure to lay down sheets of thick plywood and drive your backhoe across them to preserve the turf. Oh, wait, I forgot. Plywood costs money. Never mind.

They have a whole stack of plywood for this very purpose. Oh, almost forgot. Another reason was they didn't want any evidence of the presence of heavy equipment (flattened grass for example) when they had the memorial service.

And they excel at rural living to the degree Donald Trump is a good farmer.

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Another reason was they didn't want any evidence of the presence of heavy equipment (flattened grass for example) when they had the memorial service.

Apparently, because of their rural isolation, news has not yet reached them that a new tool has been developed to address this type of situation. It's called a rake!

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Apparently, because of their rural isolation, news has not yet reached them that a new tool has been developed to address this type of situation. It's called a rake!

waysider/oldskool......the grass is NOT the big issue here.

Yes, it's part of the messaging, but there is a manipulation factor in play. Wierwille WANTED these graves dug by hand....

...1)staff/corps were emotionally/physically involved during the digging

...2)revered respect for trustee lives was handled at lunch microphone

...3)digging graves by hand IMPLANTED vivid imagery and loyal commitment

...4)cheap labor was used and, with Ermal's grave-digging, it was finished around sunset

The double-standard for trustees vs others shows the wide chasm between THEM....and others.

And, how many were simply cremated with ashes in the way woods.....or elsewhere?

<_<

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The double-standard for trustees vs others shows the wide chasm between THEM....and others.

And, how many were simply cremated with ashes in the way woods.....or elsewhere?

<_<

Ahhh....makes sense. The trustee and director household. Separate altogether from all the serfs. Amazing when you think about it. Any jackass can start a corporation, name directors, and then say they are God's special little group that will lead and guide the people. :smilie_kool_aid:

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Heh!

Yeah, I know.

Flat grass is not really the issue. Just trying to toss in a bit of levity. :wink2:

This "participation" device was a common way for them to advance the indoctrination process. It starts with a harmless request to help with refreshments at the next branch meeting. The next thing you know, it's all your fault the chairs weren't strung to absolute perfection at the next class. No problem, though, just be sure to speak in tongues more, renew your mind and set your sights on the Advanced Class. (Keep Abundantly Sharing in the meanwhile.)

Edited by waysider
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Heh!

Yeah, I know.

Flat grass is not really the issue. Just trying to toss in a bit of levity. :wink2:

This "participation" device was a common way for them to advance the indoctrination process. It starts with a harmless request to help with refreshments at the next branch meeting. The next thing you know, it's all your fault the chairs weren't strung to absolute perfection at the next class. No problem, though, just be sure to speak in tongues more, renew your mind and set your sights on the Advanced Class. (Keep Abundantly Sharing in the meanwhile.)

Yeah.....I knew you guys understood. Just wanted to state it plainly for others who might be passing thru.

Amazing to step back and see how twi's "little policies" ALWAYS put them in charge of overseeing activities in the guise of "raising up others." All that stringing chairs crap........and wierwille would walk thru the brc each sunday at 4pm, an hour before the service to spiritually oversee everything......WHAT A LOAD OF BULLPOOKIE.

Wierwille instituted a whole system that touted menial labor as "pillars to attention to detail and later, spiritual leadership." Everything from cleaning toilets to mowing grass to breaking breath mints and placing them correctly at the podium. And, having corps trained in this pathetic servitude AND spiritual partners writing checks of support......and offshoot leaders implanting the same crapola......who's gonna stop the pain?

I wonder if wierwille spent time hand-digging his Dad's grave? <_<

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