oh you can take a lot of credit my friend – you are definitely in the small handful of articulate, thoughtful and thought-provoking Grease Spotters that have had a huge influence on me...I appreciate your patience and “tutelage” ! Another person in that handful that I truly miss is Garth P.
Hey on the flip side of the flip side – I believe I'm more in tune with your sentiment than I used to be. I think there's some serious drawbacks to a mentality that has a firm grip on a heavenly hope of resolution and perfection. Another stumbling block is the tendency to put on the back burner any big problem that can't be fixed pretty quick with a miracle (yeah, like that's gonna happen) or “managed” by “operating some biblical principle” (yeah, like “the law of believing”). ..oh the utter lack of practicality with the TWI-mindset.
Our daughter is so fortunate that we are not in The Way anymore. In TWI, people with special needs have such an inferior status....One corps night craig made a comment about the Special Olympics referring to the athletes as freaks of nature... our daughter was born just a couple of years after we left TWI....so I still had a lot of the TWI-mindset in me...you don't know how many times craig's words came back to haunt me.... ...not to worry – it took a while - but I've inspected, dissected, pulverized and rejected a lot of those thought patterns....TWI folks won't come right out and say anything – but I've heard enough innuendos from some TWI-folks that know our family that reveals an utter lack of empathy and compassion in the guise of having more important things to do, like moving “The Word”...talk about can a person truly change their mind – how about TWI folks changing their minds on how they look at people with special needs. Here's a tip – strike out the last three words – as follows “changing their minds on how they look at people with special needs.” They are people !!!! come to think of it – TWI-folks need to change their minds on how they look at people in general – but that's another story.
I heard something at a down syndrome conference one time that took me a long time to process and understand. One of the gifts that people with special needs give is that they draw out the best in us. I've learned more about genuine love and to enjoy the simple pleasures of life from my daughter than in the 12 years of TWI...can an ex-TWI-believer change his mind – you betcha !!!!