Linda Z

The stupidest face melting I ever got was from the Mid-Atlantic Region dude in 1981. He came to a dinner hosted by a couple in my "Twig area" for him and the LC and their spouses and all the TCs. The hostess, a lovely gracious woman (who's still in twi, I hear), was busy putting finishing touches on dinner and asked me to let His Royal Highness know where she'd like him to sit. I directed His Majesty to his seat and we all sat down to a nice dinner. After we finished dinner and and a few (but not all) of the people had left, we were sitting around talking. The Grand Poobah, out of the blue, screamed at me (LCM-style, vein-popping, high-pitched) for daring to "tell him where to sit." "Don't you ever tell me where to sit," he screeched. I don't remember anything else he shouted, because I was so shocked and flabbergasted. To this day I have no clue what made him take such offense at my graciously directing him to the head of the freekin' table for the hostess. I took it because one didn't bad-mouth a "leader" in front of the people they supposedly were leading, dontcha know, but to this day I regret not telling him to kiss my butt right then and there. Instead, I sobbed all the way home to my LC's wife, who was just as dumbfounded by his goofy outburst as I was. I've heard this man's name fondly and respectfully mentioned on GS a couple of times. Just hearing his name *%^#*es me off all over again. Maybe he's changed. I sure hope so, because he sure was a Class A arrogant little jackass 25 years ago.

I couldn't agree more. Going on their Web site for the purpose of arguing, convincing them they're wrong, or "saving" them is, in my opinion, an exercise in futility. What's the point? Witnessing in reverse? I see an ironic parallel here. Back in the day when I thought I was through with religion in any form, when zealous people would try to witness to me their words fell on deaf ears. It wasn't until I decided I might be interested that I gave these eager Christians the time of day. Likewise, when I was an innie and people tried to "witness to me" the evils of twi, I paid no attention to them. It wasn't until I made up my own mind to question twi that I'd listen to what any critics said. My view hasn't changed since I said this on Waydale: People will question twi/leave twi, when they're ready. The best thing any of us "outies" can do is be there for them when that time comes. Going on their Web site with an "I'm right, you're wrong" attitude will only serve to alienate.

Oldies, I still disagree. When I first started going to Twig, fellowships were self-governing. We met in the park. We met in the basement of the local church. We met at someone's house. We sometimes had a teaching and no manifestations, followed by a party. No one dictated what would be taught. We didn't follow the same boring order in every fellowship. It had something to do with "God working in us to will and to do of His good pleasure," not rules and regulations--even euphemized (is that a word?) as "guidelines. That changed over time. I stand by what I said in the first place. Love ya, but you're still mistakenly holding on to the opinion that everything in twi was only as you perceived it. Okay, for the sake of discussion, let's say twi only CLAIMED that fellowships were self-governing, self-propagating, and self-supporting. If it never was implemented, then twi was hypocritical. Either way, it all got messed up.

Oldies, that "self-governing, self-propagating, self-supporting" stuff was still being pushed hard in the mid-80s. It wasn't just an artifact of a syllabus. It was a selling point for twi. I was in Way Pub. I recall those terms being tossed about a LOT.

I beg to differ, Oldies. Twi blew it by twi's own definition of their home fellowships: self-propagating, self-governing, and self-supporting (if I'm remembering the wording of all those correctly). Self-propagating: Let's send Lightbearers, threaten them with being booted from the Corps if they don't "get a class together," and dump people into the host believers' fellowship even though it's the Lightbearers who were "undershepherding" them and whom they have begun to know and trust. Self-governing: "You will teach this week's fellowship from the Blue Book." "You must attend every class and every fellowship or be considered a cop-out." Self-supporting: All tithes and offerings will be sent to HQ. You will not use any of them to help out someone in the fellowship who has a need. I could go on, but do I really need to?

I was involved in two home fellowships before I ever heard of twi in 1972. The growing number of these might be seen as a trend, but they're nothing new. But then we knew that, from the Book of Acts. When I was a child (so we're talking 1950s here), a neighbor lady used to have Bible fellowships for the neighborhood kids. Very informal, and I don't recall a lot of "doctrine" beyond "Jesus loves you." I enjoyed going there. In the late 60s, my ex and I lived two doors from an odd assortment of people who had fellowship in their home, which was a commune of sorts. The people living there included a millionaire, two or three hippie types, a probation officer, and a young Presbyterian assistant pastor (who ultimately got canned from his church for teaching about SIT) and his wife. There was no hierarchy, they never took a collection, and there was no set order of service. This little group was loving and giving and trusted God for their every need. My husband and I declined their invitations to come to fellowship for months, but when we needed them, they were there, loving and supporting us. Unfortunately, what ultimately killed it was their obsession with "personal prophecy," not corruption and hierarchy.

Top, you pegged three of my favorites in your first post! If I need a good cry (men might not entirely understand this concept), The Way We Were is the one for me. No matter how many times I see it, it opens all the floodgates--especially the scene where Katie & Hubbell run into each other on the street, after he's remarried, and she reaches up and brushes his hair back from his forehead. Here are a few more: Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood It Happened One Night Flashdance Dirty Dancing Footloose Desk Set (Tracy & Hepburn--in fact, almost any movie starring those two) Bringing Up Baby African Queen Thelma and Louise Most Frank Capra movies

I'll try to post a photo if it's not too large. Senior prom, 1963 (no, that's not a typo--I've got 10 years on most of you): I stumbled across this while looking for a photo of my red 1957 Chevy...still looking!

This one, from Ex10, cracked me up:

Bagpipes said: "But I'm really good this month at neglecting responsibilities." Don't be hard on yourself. Sometimes we need a month--or maybe two or three--to do something different from our regular responsibilities. If you're feeling guilty, maybe that's because you were used to having your life micromanaged and scrutinzied, and you have in the back of your mind that you're supposed to be following a bunch of schedules and trying to live up to standards someone else said you should live by. Heck, just love yourself. Don't try to rush the process. Be patient with yourself. Don't try to live up to any more "rules" right now beyond loving God and loving your neighbor as yourself. As you examine the rules you're trying to follow, you might just find some of them are leftovers from your twi days that don't really matter.

Chas said: I got my first pitch from them in my 30s, too. I was shocked at the time. Now that I know they exist mainly to sell life insurance, I'm not so surprised. And speaking of getting old. I had to go to the DMV yesterday on my way to work. I was second in line so I got waited on right away, but the woman who was helping me was soooooooooooooo slow. I thought, "What a little old lady, poking along like that. She oughta retire!" Then I took a good look at her and realized she was probably about my age!

I don't think all dreams can be interpreted or their causes analyzed. I think it was MStar who said some are just "mental debris," and I've heard that dreams are how our brains get rid of it. When I was a kid I had a recurring scary dream about being chased by a bear (sometimes it was a lion) and running like mad for my grandmother's back door, only to have the door slam in my face. Then I'd wake up, terrified. I think I had it because I had 3 teenage uncles who lived in my grandma's house that was in the dearm, and they told me scary stories all the time. I also had a silly recurring dream as an adult, but it was decades ago. None since. I did have a weird experience about a month ago involving a dream, though. I dreamed that this person I work with and I were getting on our building's freight elevator, only the floors and walls of it were gone, and the elevator enclosure (the part you stand in) was just a steel frame hanging from some big chains. My coworker was standing, balancing, on the frame of the thing and was hanging onto the chains, saying, "C'mon you big chicken. Get on!" The funny thing is that this woman has a terrible fear of being trapped in an elevator. I ride the freight elevator all the time at work, and she had rarely even stepped into it before this day. So in the dream I said, "Are you crazy?!? You're the one who's afraid of elevators, not me. And now you're suddenly a daredevil, hanging by chains. No way am I getting on that thing with you!" The very next morning after the dream, I'm sitting in my office, and the person who was in my dream sticks her head into my office and says, "Would you go down in the elevator with me to pick up some boxes of computer paper?" I kid you not. I thought, "Whoa! How strange!" I told her about my dream, and we laughed. Then, just to complete all the weirdness, we got stuck in the elevator, halfway between two floors. I've been using that elevator for four and a half years and have never gotten stuck once. I guess the thing she greatly feared had come upon me. :) We were only stuck for about 5 minutes and help arrived. I guess it was just a wild coincidence, but man, what a specific coincidence!

A couple pages back, Groucho said: First of all...hahahahahahahahahahaha! But you're right. I vacation every year on a little island in Lake Erie. You always have to be on the lookout for what I call "people who went on vacation and left their brains at home." You'll be driving your golf cart down the road and in the blink of an eye, someone just steps in front of you without even glancing to see what's coming. I'm sure I had my lapses of brainlessness while in twi, but some people seemed to want to be told how to tie their shoes and wipe their noses. I think those who are afraid to question the doctrine of PFAL fall into that category. Before I got into twi I used to say of people who were in really strict denominations that they not only wanted a Father (God) but also a mother, to tell them everything to do. So this doesn't seem to be unique to twi. And I think Pond is right when she says Wierwillites react the way they do out of fear--either fear of being wrong or, worse yet, fear that there's nothing real to believe in. Many of us can assure them that there's plenty worth believing in, though. Not all of us have become agnostics and atheists since leaving twi, although some around here would like to slant it that way.

But anyway, back to the topic: I remember VPW talking about having a mortgage-burning party when they paid off the twi property. All that was talked about debt when I was an innie was that it was right to pay your debts. Period. It's pretty easy for today's twi higher-ups to pooh-pooh debt. What financial worries do they have, for God's sake? LCM, who apparently started this whole anti-debt thing, never held a job before twi. He never had to pay rent. He was waited on hand and foot. LCM nursed at the boob of the way his entire adult life until he got the boot. I imagine it's been quite a rude awakening for him.

Geo., I don't know if U. Harry made millions or not, but believe you me, I knew a few NK-area millionaires, and neither their clothes nor their cars nor their houses would ever have tipped you off to the kind of money they had. I had several close friends among the locals in that neck of the woods. Some of them simply worked all their lives, never bought anything extravagant, and saved like crazy. They weren't even in business for themselves, but because of their frugality, they'll leave quite an inheritance. It's just the culture of that part of Ohio.

Happiest of birthdays to a lovely and loving woman! Love, Linda

Thanks, Kit, that's a good site.

What a precious Valentine's Day present!! Happy Birthday, li'l cutie!

From the AP story that STL posted: If these old farts have to drive around to do their hunting, and if they can't stay out of each other's way, could it be it's time to hang up the shotgun? I'd hate to see my mom and dad out hunting. I can see it now: "Hey, look out!" "Ehhh?" *Blam* "Ouch!" "I SAID to look out." "I thought you said, ""Oooh, my gout!" There's nothing political about this. I'd say the same thing about any other two septagentarians who were out hunting and one shot the other. (Except I do admit I couldn't help but think, "Hmmm, maybe someone whispered in Dick Cheney's ear that Whittington was hiding WMDs in his hunting vest.") I'm glad VP Cheney's companion is going to be okay. I wouldn't be laughing if he weren't, but since he is, I've been chuckling about this all day. Talk about embarrassing!

I've often seen Italian flags, Polish flags, and Irish flags on or in front of people's houses. I'm sure I've seen flags from other countries, too, but those are the most common. I figure people are proud of their heritage. I don't see it as weird or as an insult to the USA.

All I know is this:

Yikes, I almost missed the party. Happiest of b'days to you, RoR, and many, many more, even if I'm a day late.

At least they're doing it for a good cause. Here in Cleveland (and in other cities) there's a Polar Bear Club whose members do this just for FUN!

Showing a map with sex offenders' locations is good, but I'd like to point out that there are better sites, with more info. Just do a Google search for "your county name" +"sex offenders" and see what comes up. The site I looked at lists the perps' exact addresses and shows a photo of each creep, as well as his convictions. Our office is maybe 1/4 mile from a huge men's homeless shelter where they send people who have just been released from prison. The place is crawling with sex offenders. (They blend in well with the murderers who hang out there.) The map found by clicking on the original link in this thread shows no sex offenders there, but I counted 23 and only went to C in the site's alphabetical list (by last name) of men living at that address. And there are two more men's shelters just a little farther from our office. This was all part of our boss's brilliant plan to save on parking by moving out of downtown. So now we're in a creepy industrial area in a converted warehouse, surrounded by perverts!

Good cuddlin' weather! It was supposed to miss us this time and head right for the East Coast (sorry Krys, exsie, everyone). I was surprised when I let the dogs out this morning by a nice blanket of new snow--only about an inch or two so far, but it was coming down pretty good last time I looked.