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Hi there. Those of you who tuned in and liked "The Way:Living in Wonderland" may like this thread. That one looked at the book "the Way:Living in Love" and the picture of Wonderland that it presented. This thread will look at the book by lcm, titled "VP and Me." Since my approach will be similar, I labelled this thread accordingly. Now, then, this book was never released, not even to twi members. The only "circulation" extant is the notes taken on this book by people who were required to sit thru a "class" of its contents. Therefore, we lack an ability to go over it line-by-line. Thus, this can't be an "official" analysis of the book itself. However, what we do have is a pretty complete set of notes, from here: http://www.greasespotcafe.com/waydale/corp.../vp-and-me.html ==== The setup and structure of the book and its presentation are already listed there, so I won't repeat them here. I WILL, however, quote some highlights from the book before discussing, same as we did with the other thread. Remembering that this book contains reminiscences of lcm, and thus how lcm remembers things, I think it can be another useful tool in viewing vpw AND lcm. (So long as we remember that.) ================= "Most of the incidents were not written down at the time of occurrencs in diaries. etc. The book was written mainly from recollection." 1970-1971. ========= "The first time that LCM saw Dr. was when he was a senior at the University of Kansas. LCM went to twig first and found the teaching to be tremendous (electrifying). Donny Fugit taught. On Dec 8th 1970, Dr. Wierwille came to Laurence, Kansas to the fraternity house of Joe C**lt*r to teach twi. LCM immediately recognized him as a 'great man.' "LCM wanted to be right. Wanted to be convinced. The next time LCM saw Dr was in Witchita, Kansas when he visited with Cl**d*tt** R*y*l. When he was first introduced to Dr Wierwille, Dr said to him 'Hello-Well I have to go and eat this piece of cake.' Dr W would meet with all the believers from each city at a time in a room in the basement. All the Limb was there, but he'd meet with everyone branch by branch. Dr asked for help whenever he needed it. He asked Donny Fugit a question about something. LCM was very impressed and shocked that so great a man would ask for help in front of others. One day LCM received a copy of a letter that had been sent to his home address (he was on a job elsewhere at the time.) The letter had been in response to his letter about coming into the Way Corps. It was a couple of weeks old! Across the top of the copy was written "Either call Dr. Wierwille or forget it!"- Howard Allen. LCM ran to the phone and called Dr Wierwille. Dr asked him if he would come to summer school to see how he shaped up for acceptance into the corps. LCM said he'd be there with all his money together, etc. LCM had always planned on going into the Christian ministry with his church. but after taking PFAL, he realized that he and his denomination no longer saw eye to eye on issues. He wanted now to go Corps!" June 1971: Heading to HQ. ============ "LCM showed up without all of his money together for summer school." "After the service LCM went to Dr at the advice of Mrs Owens, and informed him that he did not have all of his money together for summer school. Dr looked at him and then said 'You can stay as long as your money holds!' LCM really looked upon this as grace upon grace and resolved never to go behind in his financial responsibilities. If he ever went a day behind, he decided, he would leave." "LCM was stunned to see Dr. mowing the lawn at HQ. HE was in his shorts! Surely a man of God as important as Dr. should not have to do menial work like this. He should be inside studying the Word!" "That summer Dr taught the 'Athletes of the Spirit' analogy for the first time." Fall of 1971. ========== "Start of Corps training. 'Welcome home son!' Dr says to LCM after he gets back from a trip to Oklahoma to see his folks. It was right then that LCM realized and decided that HQ was now his home. The very first corps night that LCM was ever at, Dr. showed everyone how to manage a 3 x 5 card file to help keep track of people's names, etc. LCM had expected a big heavy teaching and was amazed once again at the stuff that Dr came up with, the practicality of it." [A few months later] "Dr asked him while driving would he like to be the WOW coordinator He said 'Sure' (gulp)." "Commissioned the second wave of WOWs that year. LCM, now the coordinator, was asked if he wanted to have breakfast for the WOWs before they left to go on the field. Not being a morning-breakfast-type of person, and thinking that the ministry could save some money instead, he choose to not have breakfast prepared for the departing WOWs that day. The WOWs left before 7am that day with no food. When Dr heard that he was very hurt. He asked at lunch who had made the decision to send the WOWs away on an empty stomach. LCM put up his hand and admitted it was he. The learning he got was that finances are not the sole variable in moving the Word. There are times to spend and times not to spend. Being frugal is not the same as being stingy!" ======= Next time we'll resume with "Location-South Trustee Office. LCM's 1st year in the Way Corps."

yup - those are great, Word Wolf ! ....and as far as I'm concerned your input on countless other threads has also been extremely helpful. ....if there was an award for the proficient use of critical thinking AND inspiring others to do the same I would nominate you for exemplary service to the Grease Spot community.

I've had a few forgettable threads fade with no replies, so you've forgotten about them. However, I'm really proud of a few threads, especially the "Wonderland" pair, "The Way: Living in Wonderland" and "vp and me in Wonderland" (this one.)

Not the quote I'D use for this flick, but easy enough: "Stripes" George

It's amazing what you can miss sometimes, in the manner of the famous "not-seeing-the-forest-for-the-trees" sense. I ranted a bit about one of the incidents on this thread that showed how DISPOSABLE vpw viewed the individual members of the way corps. Looking back, there's something interesting. There were 2 incidents listed in this book (and thus, this thread), where program participants had what may have been termed "episodes", some kind of fit or acute psychiatric attack. (Insufficient details were provided to determine specifics.) Now, the FIRST time, it's possible, although IRRESPONSIBLE, that no framework or even tentative plan was put in place for emergencies, as in "what do we do if someone has a heart attack or something". There was no medical staffer on-call in case of emergencies, and no emergency "get-them-to-the-hospital" plan. That there was none the SECOND time it happened, I think, shows how little the individual people mattered. A need was demonstrated the FIRST time, and vpw elected to do nothing about it. In all sensible arrangements, the SECOND time something happened, a better response would be shown-the byproduct of the post-mortem review of what failed the first time, and what was needed the first time. However, in this case, the FIRST incident had the better response. Here's what we have on the first incident. (From Post 4, "Location: South Trustee Office, LCM's first year in the Way Corps." ""Incident when Dr. W didn't know what to do about a WOW who had gone off her rocker. LCM, on seeing how he handled the situation, learned from it that you take help from people that you love and trust. You may not have all the answers yourself. Dr had said 'I don't know what to do, Howard. Tell me what I can do!' Dr later took the girl into his home for a few weeks and got her back to health."" Here's what we have on the second incident. """Dr and LCM always fought for people to stay in the Corps. There was an incident of a guy in the Corps who all of a sudden went "gooney-bird". He started to babble and not make sense. LCM worked hard with the guy to help him but he was incoherent. Dr, when he met him, confronted him by asking- 'Son, how come you're letting your mind get all scrambled?' The guy answered unintelligibly and Dr told him that it would be best for him just to pack his bags and go home. The guy understood that. He left. LCM spent many hours and many long distance phone calls trying to make sure the guy had gotten home from his bus ride home safely. Not being able to verify his location, he was concerned. Dr told him to move on. There's nothing you can do, he'll show up at home soon enough. A week later the guy did show up at home."" Almost the same problem both times, but vpw elects to try to do SOMETHING the first time, and elects to kick out the victim the second time and send him home. Let's look at them again. """Incident when Dr. W didn't know what to do about a WOW who had gone off her rocker. LCM, on seeing how he handled the situation, learned from it that you take help from people that you love and trust. You may not have all the answers yourself. Dr had said 'I don't know what to do, Howard. Tell me what I can do!' Dr later took the girl into his home for a few weeks and got her back to health."" """Dr and LCM always fought for people to stay in the Corps. There was an incident of a guy in the Corps who all of a sudden went "gooney-bird". He started to babble and not make sense. LCM worked hard with the guy to help him but he was incoherent. Dr, when he met him, confronted him by asking- 'Son, how come you're letting your mind get all scrambled?' The guy answered unintelligibly and Dr told him that it would be best for him just to pack his bags and go home. The guy understood that. He left. LCM spent many hours and many long distance phone calls trying to make sure the guy had gotten home from his bus ride home safely. Not being able to verify his location, he was concerned. Dr told him to move on. There's nothing you can do, he'll show up at home soon enough. A week later the guy did show up at home.""" In the first instance, a female wow has some sort of attack. vpw takes her into his own home for a week. In the second instance, a male corpsman has some sort of attack. vpw kicks him out, and shoves him on a bus. The guy turns up at home A WEEK LATER (after almost-certainly getting lost and displaced, since he took A WEEK to get home by bus.) Why the special treatment in the first case, and why the cutting loose in the second case? Is it because the wows were treasured where the corps were disposable? Or was it that vpw didn't care about losing a man, but wanted to keep a female in the program? And why someplace private like HIS HOUSE? Wouldn't someplace more open, thus facilitating medical treatment, make more sense? Or was his intent dismissive of medical care, but prioritizing for taking a sick, temporarily-disabled young woman, and placing her in a place out of sight of most people, where vpw could be alone with her without eyewitnesses? Is anybody else thinking that the poor victim who wandered the country alone for a week while having an acute episode of SOME kind was better off than the woman alone with vpw?