Belle

Thanks to Too Gray Now for this gem! We were taught very early in PFAL that it was evil and wrong to even "consider" something "off the word" and then it was just a short jump to, "If you're not in TWI, then anything you have to say is evil". I think that's part of why it's so dadgum hard for some of us to eliminate way-brain from our thinking. We're afraid to even consider that someone else might actually - gasp - be right. We certainly don't want to take the time to listen to them in case they're wrong and then we've considered wrong doctrine. It's best just to stay in our own little cave of believing.

Does Amazing Sea Monkey fascination make one an a-fish-ianado? :P I did send the link to my buddy, but he corrected me.... the 55 gal tank was soooo last year. This year Santa brought him a (and I quote): "150 gallon. 6 feet long 18 inches deep and about 2 and half feet in height mmmmmwwwwwaaaaaaaaa hahahaha. I will have my queen angel center piece yet!!"

Sushi, I haven't listened to all of this cause I don't have kids and, well, the new season of CSI has started with Survivor coming up as well as NASCAR Season..... But what to Helicopters, Drill Sergeants and Consultants say about Spanking Swingers?

Very interesting, +odd. In fact, I believe there is an article with some great thoughts about the very same thing in this month's "Science of Mind" issue. I only glanced at it, but will look more closely when I get home. Too Gray - I never put to connection together with the real threat that "considering" what the serpent was saying with our tremendous fear of even hearing what dissenters might say about TWI and the doctrine. VERY EYE OPENING! Great "ah ha!" moment for me. Thank you!!! I was listening to a Gnostic Podcast last night and was very intrigued by the references to "Christianity", the teachings of the Kaballah, Buddhism, Muslim, etc. The speaker would speak of something and then go through what the same thing is called in these various beliefs. It made things so much "bigger" to me - much more peripheral and clear as to how it's just labels and words, but when one gets down to the nuts and bolts - core - atomic level - it's the same. Some things caused me to "bristle" somewhat, but then he'd say, "For you Christians out there, this is what you call....." or he'd say "In Buddhism this is called....." and "The Old Testament says this, and Kabballah further explains it as....." I'm not sure I got much out of the actual teaching for the sheer exercise of seeing even deeper how connected we all are in our desires for explanations and the corresponding lessons/paths/whatever.... each of us ends up on and how so many of the things we may despise in other belief systems are really the same thing we believe. They just use different terms that we don't understand, so we disagree or discount what they believe without really understanding.

Thank you, Roy. :) I haven't read it yet, but plan to. I've been very interested in the Nag Hammadi Scrolls, but not had the time to read as much as I would like.

Great question, Muffin's Mom. I started a thread in the About the Way on it: Calling Old Friends We've got lots of wise folks here. Oh, and Welcome to the Greasespot Cafe!! May I buy you a drink?

Alright, you've got the phone number of some long lost friends from TWI. You haven't talked to them in many years and have always missed them and wondered how they were doing. Now, you have the number, but you're not sure if they're still in TWI or not. How do you proceed?

The last spanking I got was at 17 years old when I told my Daddy I was too old to get a spanking. :ph34r: Spanking, which is what we're talking about, right? (Not beatings) Spanking can be an effective deterrent. If other methods work for the parent and a particular child - great! If spanking works and that's what the parent chooses to use, then it's their business. Discipline in the schools, imo, didn't get to be such a problem until parents started suing the schools for paddling their kids. How many kids worry about getting in trouble at school because they know that if they do, they're gonna get it tenfold when they get home? Not many these days, I imagine. And not enough parents care either, also imo. I don't know about y'all but the rumors and legends of the various and sundry paddles hanging in each principal's office each year was quite the deterrent when I was growing up. And then there's the "switches" OMG, the switch!! My parents were raised on switches - none of this "hand" smack stuff - they had to go pick out their own implement of destruction. :o And ya know what? Like Eagle, none of us are scarred for life. None of us are any more "dysfunctional" than the average Joe..... well, there's this one of us that ended up in a cult for 10 years, but I doubt the spankings had anything to do with that.

I think it was shortly after some rude folks started calling him a liar and a troll instead of giving him the benefit of the doubt and welcoming him to the cafe. :unsure: Or maybe it was when the same predictable posters started defending the rapists.... again...... <_<

I remember reading horror tales of driving Gunnison Pass when nobody in their right mind should have been on that dangerous road. A week after we returned from our honeymoon and were in the process of getting settled into our new apartment was a long week-end limb meeting. Folks from all over the state were coming into the town 1-2 hours south of us to hear the right reverend moneyhands and, as usual, it was "the single most spiritually significant" event of the year (till the next meeting was announced anyway). We were tired, we were busy unpacking, we were broke, we were newlyweds! I fought and fought for us to skip that week-end of meetings. We were harrassed to no end about making sure we didn't miss the meetings. My ex caved in - and to make it worse - we were even put on some kind of crew, so we had to be there early or later than everyone else - everyone else who was staying in the area - This was the beginning of me wondering what the he11 I had gotten myself into and what kind of man my ex really was if he couldn't stand up for what he knew was best for both of us.

pupkiss - The smear that your adorable dog leaves all over the windows to the car

I think that how I raise my kids is none of her business.

Nope - my church doesn't even have a President!

Don't ask me. I'm still on the short bus: 3rd Grade Test

There is!

How many "spiritual emergencies" did you report for? Weren't there quite a few? I remember reading about some corps events where people were woken up in the middle of the night and told to report somewhere. When the lawsuits could no longer be hidden, we had "emergency" meetings at the Moynihans with little to no warning. Just expected to totally rearrange our schedules so that we could be at this "important" meeting regardless of our previous plans. So many times we were expected to drop everything because of TWI leaders.

Zaba Search has quite a few - Know where he was last seen?

www.ZabaSearch.com has several listed.

We need a date - where's the chef to coordinate all us greasespots??

OMG! Socks, I have a friend who is a fanatic about his fish aquarium! I think he has something ridiculously huge, like a 55 gal. aquarium. Saltwater, too, nonetheless. I will definitely share this with him! Thank you!!

I was thinking about something along those lines last night, Dooj. I should probably start a thread on it. It's so important for the youngsters to have that recognition and respect from adults who recognize the good things about them. The first time I went home after my divorce my two teenage cousins came up to me privately before I left and thanked me for "treating them like an adult". They said that their parents and other adults don't give them enough credit for having some modicum of intelligence and common sense and that it was so nice to be treated like something other than an elementary school kid. Someone actually - gasp - listened to them! I'll definitely do something today in honor of the littlest Dooj.

Please, I love you guys! Don't denigrate this great thread into personal attacks. I'm beggin' ya!