Broken Arrow

It's been fairly well documented among doctors that depression, anxiety, and the like suppress the immune system thus opening up the body for all kinds of things. I'm not just making this up. With my own health issues, medical information I received said this very thing. Of course, I suppose someone could "run" with this and say all one had to do was "stay happy" and good health would be guaranteed. That's not true either, but it is a factor. My in-laws have been married for 65 years! He's 93 and she's 86. Every night before going to bed they sing love songs to each other! I live with them and I know.

Thank you for your kind words. I'm with you in regard to those who live in spite of all odds. Life does hold mysteries none of us completely understand. James Thurber wrote a true story about a dog he had that became injured. When the last member of the household arrived home the dog greeted him and died. Was the dog "believing"? Did he die because he grew tired of the fight and stopped believing? Back to Krys's question, what did the dog "believe" for?

Thanks WG. I haven't had the chance to listen to this yet, but I will. I met your husband's mom a while back and of course I knew his brother.

During Paul's prison time. The verse you're referring to is in Timothy; II Timothy if I'm not mistaken.

I can't remember the title but you'll probably remember what I'm talking about. It's a WWII movie about an American sub commandeering a German U-Boat. I think it was U-571, or something like that. It's the only movie I've seen where it just goes from one scene of shooting and blowing things up to the next and the plot is totally incidental. It's great! I mean you can just bask in two hours of "Ka-Boom", "Oh no! German fighters...ahh!" KA-BOOM! Who the Hell cares what they were actually trying to do? And of course, the Americans win against all odds, like they always do. It's like the writer scripted this series of special effects and then thought, "Hmmm, guess we oughta have a plot in here somewhere".

Exactly. IMO you are correct on every point you make, and it gets weird when someone you love dies for the reasons you point out. It's also difficult to comfort someone and not be condescending. I mean, after all, their loved one died because of weakness i.e. they were out of fellowship.

Yeah! Probably the number one thing we should all do.

Spoken like a true Clevelander...or somewhere close by. Someone told me that allowing the tank go below half full is bad for the injectors since any "gunk" in a gas tank settles on the bottom. If you let the level get too low, "gunk" starts going through the injectors and that seriously inhibits an engine's performance. True, or false? Makes sense to me. Hey! Someone should start a radio program about this stuff! Maybe call it "Car Talk" or something.

Ain't nuttin' wrong with dusty! :)

Glad to hear it! Good for you guys! FWIW, "in the household" must've been added under the LCM regime because we weren't saying that in the 70's or 80's. At least not as I recall.

Thank you for your very kind response and, oh yeah, I'm doing the health checks. I have heart issues as well. My father died when he was 56, I am now 53. He passed away quite a while ago and perhaps I didn't make that clear. The TWI thinking inhibited the grieving process a great deal. I was 23 at his passing. I didn't really start truly dealing with his death until my 40's when I dropped the Way thinking. If I still embraced "Way thinking", it would be very dangerous. My attitude would be rather cavalier and I would do whatever I wanted to because, "You die when you stop believing". Thank you all for your responses! Right! Or the phrase, "The outward man perishes, the inward man is renewed day by day".

Amen to that!

VPW taught that a person actually dies when they stop believing. As he grew older he began to say that a person dies when they become "tired of the fight and stop believing". This teaching was damaging to me personally in ways I did not understand at the time. First of all, when VP said a person died when they became "tired of the fight", I got a sense of hopelessness. The ramifications of this teaching are that at the end of everyone's life, they would become full of despair and die discouraged. Otherwise they would keep on living. On a more personal level, it just so happened my own father died when I was in TWI. My father was not a Way believer. For a long time I blamed my dad for dying. I believed he died because he stopped believing and he left us alone. He abandoned us, he abandoned me. I realize that denial and anger are a normal part of the grieving process, but this TWI doctrine fed my wrong thinking and probably made the grieving process last a lot longer than it needed to, like years longer. I did the bargaining thing too, by the way. I blamed myself for not praying well enough, or believing well enough, or not being a good enough son, or whatever. Could I have said something during our last conversation that would have made a difference? All that is part of the grieving process too. My father had heart disease, and that's what he died of. He went to bed one night and never woke up. He died at the ripe old age of 56. Death comes to us all, and it doesn't follow anyone's schedule. TWI imparted a sense of control that was not real. When life's circumstances proved that we were not in control, we found someone or something to blame. In the end, such a doctrine does a lot of damage. Peace is not found in controlling or eliminating negative or hurtful life (or death) experiences. Peace comes in knowing that, come what may, we are never alone. For me, and maybe I'm just weird, there's a certain peace in knowing today could be my last day on earth. With that being known, it is possible to die content and at peace.

Indeed! Rest in peace Bobby Thomson.

Don't misunderstand, I'm not making value judgements here. No one's choices are better than others. I'm talking cliches as in certain networks in reality re-hash the same theme over and over again. I'm picking on the Hallmark Channel (because my wife watches it) but Cop and lawyer shows do the same thing, and is it possible to come up with anymore medical/hospital dramas? I don't even have to watch the show most times to know what is going to happen.

FWIW, any class I was involved in mid 70's to mid 80's did not operate like that. One time we had someone who refused to "S.I.T." We just said, "free will" and left her alone. There were plenty of times someone didn't speak in tongues. We always felt like we were the ones "blowing it" because VPW says in his classes, "No one gets missed, just no one!" I'm sorry about the ABS thing you and your wife are going through but I'm glad you're not buying it. I'm also sorry to say that TWI isn't the only organization that uses guilt to get their money. Does it feel good to start gaining control of your life again? Don't get me wrong. I'm all for financially supporting your church/fellowship/whatever if someone feels so inclined. Oh how ridiculous!

There is a redeeeming scene. Tom Skerrit decides he's going to get rid of the birds in the tree by throwing up a string of firecrackers. The problem is, the fuses lasted longer than he planned and the firecrackers fal down and boew up around his head. The character goes temporarily deaf. Embarrassed, he pretends nothing is wrong.

Remember when the History Channel used to be about...history? Now you get "Ice Road Truckers", or those guys who travel around buying antique junk, or that show about lumberjacks. Shows about actual history are few and far between anymore.

Sometimes I get lost in the sauce.

Ooo! I'd managed to forget that one...yech!

I hadn't realized it had been done before. I thought I was being sooo original. (Guy flick?)

Young man walks into a clothing store with a bouquet of flowers. He gives them to his girlfriend to celebrate them dating for exactly one-week. There is a Joe Cocker song playing in the background and all the girls at the clothing come out and clap for true love. The young man clumsily walks away and as he does, accidently knocks over a shelf and all the girls giggle. His girlfriend says, "I'll get that." And the young man sheepishly leaves-This is a chick flick. This same young man starts to walk down the street toward his parked car. As he gets 4-feet away, the car explodes and the young man barely escapes with his life. He knows who did it, it was Max Oscapelli. He has it in for him because the young man, who is also an undercover cop, busted him on drug charges years ago. Now Oscapelli is out of prison and seeking revenge.-This is a guy movie.

This is a television plot. Attractive female, blond, in her early to mid-30's returns home to the family farm after being away for many years. Her father just died and she is back to attend the funeral. The rest of the family, though they love her, are hurt that she left and found a new life in New York City. She didn't even come home when father was ill, but that's because he never let on how serious his illness was. There's the mother, always sweet, encouraging, and content. There's the younger brother who stood with the family through thick and thin, and his very pretty wife and 2 children aged 10 and 12. Brother is bitter toward the older sister for leaving, leaving him alone to take care of the family homestead. It just so happens it's Christmas. After the funeral, the family's attorney comes over and it's then we found out that the farm hasn't been profitable for years. To make ends meet, the recently deceased father was taking out loans. The equity in the farm has been tapped out, moreover, dad had not paid back taxes. The estate has to come up with $70,000 by December 31st or the farm faces foreclosure. It's already December 15th. Meanwhile, in a coffee shop in town, Bubba hears that the long lost sister has returned home. The long lost sister, call her Ellie, left him for the lights of York York when they were 18. He still loves her and he's been very lonely since his perfect wife died 5 years ago. Besides, his shattered children need a mom. He loves Ellie, but let her get away and now it's too late...or is it? But the plot thickens because Ellie has a business partner that is also her fiance. He keeps calling and asking Ellie when She's coming home, the business simply cannot operate without her. This is the plot of every made-for-T.V. movie on the Hallmark Channel. Maybe a different wrinkle here and there, but basically the plot.

Is that why she became an EX-girlfrend?