All the "artistic" endeavors of The Way (at least during my time in) were really nothing more than ad campaigns, geared toward bringing people into the fold, where they could be milked for their ABS.
All the "artistic" endeavors of The Way (at least during my time in) were really nothing more than ad campaigns, geared toward bringing people into the fold, where they could be milked for their ABS.
Some of the latter "artistic" endeavors of The Way include their annual poster. This work of "art" really reflects accurately the "dumbing down" of the teachings over the year. Instead of drawing people, you can draw "Planet of the Apes" look-alikes. Then, when that gets too hard, you can just draw a field, or rows of corn, or a barn or something that's a lot easier to do in retirement paint-by-numbers projects. I would say it approaches cartoons, but I don't want to degrade the fine artists in the comic book industry by comparison.
Some of the latter "artistic" endeavors of The Way include their annual poster. This work of "art" really reflects accurately the "dumbing down" of the teachings over the year. Instead of drawing people, you can draw "Planet of the Apes" look-alikes. Then, when that gets too hard, you can just draw a field, or rows of corn, or a barn or something that's a lot easier to do in retirement paint-by-numbers projects. I would say it approaches cartoons, but I don't want to degrade the fine artists in the comic book industry by comparison.
One more example of "things that suck at TWI".
Well, look for them to remain that sucky or get worse. There's only one artist left around there. There's other artists on staff, I imagines, but working on the poster is real confidential stuff. Plus, they paint that big ole billboard each year to go on Wierwille Road. Deadlines, strict confidentiality, layers of approval have killed any creativity that goes in to that awful thing. It's as low rent as the cheap poster frames that are doomed to encase it in rental properties across America. (No offense to non-TWI renters.)
I stopped buying the posters a few years before I left simply because I didn't want to have to explain why I had something so friggin ugly hanging on my wall to anyone who happened to stop by the house. We were chided about it the few times we had fellowship there, but we never bought one.
I also never bought those little pictures of the BOD/BOT and VP, and I never understood why other people did. Why have pictures of people you didn't even know handing around your house? Nope, pictures like that for me are reserved for family and dear friends.
Oh, and completely (maybe not completely) off topic - the last couple pictures we got of the BOD in their HOHO cards (before we moved and didn't leave a forwarding address) looked reall bad - like they were standing in front of a green screen and the background was added in later. Lighting was really wrong, just ugly.
Haven't gotten a card since we moved. It makes Christmas just that much merrier.
I also never bought those little pictures of the BOD/BOT and VP, and I never understood why other people did. Why have pictures of people you didn't even know handing around your house? Nope, pictures like that for me are reserved for family and dear friends.
I think they were intended to remind us to speak in tongues for the bod. Hate to break it to them that a person can't do that. Oh, and also to remind us to pray for them Ya know? I mean they are on the front lines of the spiritual competition, arm wrestling the devil or something.
On the other hand how often were we reminded of what the board of directors so graciously made available. Someone should explain to the idiots what they are "making available" was supplied by the people that send in their money. Perhaps the board of directors need pictures of everyone in the ministry so they can pray the money keeps coming in.
Plus it can't be regulated. That was even worse in TWI world.
Regulated.. Yeah.. That about sums up TWI world.. Everything was regulated. And what wasn't(isn't) regulated, they are still trying to find a way to do..
This summer.. As in 2010.. They are attempting once again to regulate the music groups.. With all the young folks either closely watched or kicked out of the group settings they try to gather into, mainly they have a number of small bands started at HQ and in the larger limbs, TWI has decided to hold a Songwriting seminar/class at Gunnison, so that all these potential music groups can begin writing songs that are regulated and "TWI" worthy... Yeah, good way to once again squelch the creativity..
Well, I'll tell you that before I got into TWI, I was a musician, guitar, keyboard.....gave lessons on instruments as well as voice. Got into TWI and it was within months I was instructed to put down all music and only focus on the word.
So, I did. I stopped playing, writing songs, giving lessons etc etc. It totally messed with me because that was what I was good at and loved and to not do it, just crushed me. So for three years I had nothing to do with music. It wasn't until I went WOW, that the limb coordinator heard I used to play music and sing and he asked me to play and sing at the limb meeting. I said I can't....he said why not, and I said because I was told not to play music and focus on the word.
He said I think you should go ahead and do this, it's ok. I had to borrow a guitar cause I had sold mine...but I did one song. After that music was still a "dead" issue for me. No passion for it....lost it. After leaving TWI (and I was in for 13 years)...the first thing I wanted to do was music again...but I had no, absolutely no passion for it....it was gone. And it was really kind of strange as in my head I recalled my days prior to TWI and what I was doing and I so wanted to do that again...and I just could not Get the "passion" back. It was 13 years later that I befriended someone who actually helped me start playing again. But it took time even with that to get back into it and enjoy it. And truthfully, it has never meant as much to me now as it did prior TWI.
There's nothing "Fine" about Arts with no "Create"ivity.
I stopped buying the posters a few years before I left simply because I didn't want to have to explain why I had something so friggin ugly hanging on my wall to anyone who happened to stop by the house. We were chided about it the few times we had fellowship there, but we never bought one.
I also never bought those little pictures of the BOD/BOT and VP, and I never understood why other people did. Why have pictures of people you didn't even know handing around your house? Nope, pictures like that for me are reserved for family and dear friends.
Oh, and completely (maybe not completely) off topic - the last couple pictures we got of the BOD in their HOHO cards (before we moved and didn't leave a forwarding address) looked reall bad - like they were standing in front of a green screen and the background was added in later. Lighting was really wrong, just ugly.
Haven't gotten a card since we moved. It makes Christmas just that much merrier.
We still get Hoho cards - like I want to see their fugly mugs. Somehow mine got thrown out before I could realize the true Photoshop value encased therein. But that there is a good idea!!!!! Maybe we can have a Photoshop contest around the holidays - a down to earth real life BOD - o - shop opportunity
If they're going to put them out for public consumption we might as well get some use out of them besides the standard use of birdcage lining.
The posters - I see better art walking down Elementary school halls. And LMAO about them being "confidential". Here's something that's not confidential - it's public knowledge, Frau Q-Tip - they SUCK!!!!!!
You see what they can't put together is that their planning process is really ineffective. That's because Frau and Frau-bootie-kissers don't realize that they are doing nothing more than worshipping their own thoughts!!!! Yes - your planning is just your thoughts!!!! And they are not to be worshipped, God is!!!! So Q-tip lady, your whole kit and kaboodle, your whole process and procedure is no more than your own personal idolatry that you have wrapped, packaged, and sold to those stupid enough to believe it. There is nothing inherently godly about your planning. It is nothing more than writing down your thoughts at a certain time, then revisiting them.
Here's an example planning session. "Let's do this". "OK - repeated 25 times". Then one month later - "Let's re-examine the idea". "OK - 25x". "Wow that was a great idea". "Yes it was - 25x". "Let's go with it". This snowballs to the point the longer a bunch of stooges have been yessing an idea to death it's solidified into something almost graven in stone like the 10 commandments.
Yes, they worship their plans. Which means they worship their own thinking from a previous time. Which means they worship the creation, not the Creator. They give a whole new meaning to the phrase "legends in their own mind".
We still get Hoho cards - like I want to see their fugly mugs. Somehow mine got thrown out before I could realize the true Photoshop value encased therein. But that there is a good idea!!!!! Maybe we can have a Photoshop contest around the holidays - a down to earth real life BOD - o - shop opportunity
If they're going to put them out for public consumption we might as well get some use out of them besides the standard use of birdcage lining.
The posters - I see better art walking down Elementary school halls. And LMAO about them being "confidential". Here's something that's not confidential - it's public knowledge, Frau Q-Tip - they SUCK!!!!!!
You see what they can't put together is that their planning process is really ineffective. That's because Frau and Frau-bootie-kissers don't realize that they are doing nothing more than worshipping their own thoughts!!!! Yes - your planning is just your thoughts!!!! And they are not to be worshipped, God is!!!! So Q-tip lady, your whole kit and kaboodle, your whole process and procedure is no more than your own personal idolatry that you have wrapped, packaged, and sold to those stupid enough to believe it. There is nothing inherently godly about your planning. It is nothing more than writing down your thoughts at a certain time, then revisiting them.
Here's an example planning session. "Let's do this". "OK - repeated 25 times". Then one month later - "Let's re-examine the idea". "OK - 25x". "Wow that was a great idea". "Yes it was - 25x". "Let's go with it". This snowballs to the point the longer a bunch of stooges have been yessing an idea to death it's solidified into something almost graven in stone like the 10 commandments.
Yes, they worship their plans. Which means they worship their own thinking from a previous time. Which means they worship the creation, not the Creator. They give a whole new meaning to the phrase "legends in their own mind".
twi destroyed my creativity (YES I SAID CREATIVITY) by telling me what/how/when to paint and draw. I got criticized a lot.
after I got out, I purposefully painted a bunch of stuff I knew twibots would say was devilish or unprofitable. I sold every one. I haven't had time to paint since, but at least I'm not worried about what they think. I have plans for a future project that includes lots of drawing and it won't be "on the word" at all. but it will be fun and good and fit a niche and it will make me happy.
I have had a bit of a problem as a formerly creative individual since my experience in twi... Seems a bit hard to let go and really allow myself to work creatively on anything in the past couple of years.
Anybody else have this problem?
or am I the only one?
I find it hard to even get to the point of letting my mind wander a little bit outside the lines, and this is coming from a formerly prolific writer (posts online DO NOT COUNT), painter, poet, and singer... The only time I seem to be able to think outside my box is while driving, because I can't be working on something else in the meantime...
help?
Just an update...
I now own and run my own business which involves a lot of culinary creativity...
AND I joined the choir at my church. Sang in the Advent Concert. And just finished singing in my first Mass as a choir member. I asked if I could join - didn't have to try out and prove myself, they just said great! and I was in. And I didn't have to wear a lame dress from the Lawrence Welk hand-me-down closet. I wore pants. Take that TWI! My sponsor from the classes I took last year wore JEANS and no one cared. Probably because she's an alto. :wink2:/>
AND THE BIGGEST THING: I am on the 7,204th word of a novel.
Yep. I am writing for real. A book TWI would never approve of. One I was afraid to write when I was in, because I would be labeled as possessed.
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chockfull
We still get Hoho cards - like I want to see their fugly mugs. Somehow mine got thrown out before I could realize the true Photoshop value encased therein. But that there is a good idea!!!!! Maybe
JavaJane
Just an update... I now own and run my own business which involves a lot of culinary creativity... AND I joined the choir at my church. Sang in the Advent Concert. And just finished singing in my
waysider
All the "artistic" endeavors of The Way (at least during my time in) were really nothing more than ad campaigns, geared toward bringing people into the fold, where they could be milked for their ABS.
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chockfull
Some of the latter "artistic" endeavors of The Way include their annual poster. This work of "art" really reflects accurately the "dumbing down" of the teachings over the year. Instead of drawing people, you can draw "Planet of the Apes" look-alikes. Then, when that gets too hard, you can just draw a field, or rows of corn, or a barn or something that's a lot easier to do in retirement paint-by-numbers projects. I would say it approaches cartoons, but I don't want to degrade the fine artists in the comic book industry by comparison.
One more example of "things that suck at TWI".
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OldSkool
Well, look for them to remain that sucky or get worse. There's only one artist left around there. There's other artists on staff, I imagines, but working on the poster is real confidential stuff. Plus, they paint that big ole billboard each year to go on Wierwille Road. Deadlines, strict confidentiality, layers of approval have killed any creativity that goes in to that awful thing. It's as low rent as the cheap poster frames that are doomed to encase it in rental properties across America. (No offense to non-TWI renters.)
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JavaJane
I stopped buying the posters a few years before I left simply because I didn't want to have to explain why I had something so friggin ugly hanging on my wall to anyone who happened to stop by the house. We were chided about it the few times we had fellowship there, but we never bought one.
I also never bought those little pictures of the BOD/BOT and VP, and I never understood why other people did. Why have pictures of people you didn't even know handing around your house? Nope, pictures like that for me are reserved for family and dear friends.
Oh, and completely (maybe not completely) off topic - the last couple pictures we got of the BOD in their HOHO cards (before we moved and didn't leave a forwarding address) looked reall bad - like they were standing in front of a green screen and the background was added in later. Lighting was really wrong, just ugly.
Haven't gotten a card since we moved. It makes Christmas just that much merrier.
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OldSkool
I think they were intended to remind us to speak in tongues for the bod. Hate to break it to them that a person can't do that. Oh, and also to remind us to pray for them Ya know? I mean they are on the front lines of the spiritual competition, arm wrestling the devil or something.
On the other hand how often were we reminded of what the board of directors so graciously made available. Someone should explain to the idiots what they are "making available" was supplied by the people that send in their money.
Perhaps the board of directors need pictures of everyone in the ministry so they can pray the money keeps coming in.
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TrustAndObey
Regulated.. Yeah.. That about sums up TWI world.. Everything was regulated. And what wasn't(isn't) regulated, they are still trying to find a way to do..
This summer.. As in 2010.. They are attempting once again to regulate the music groups.. With all the young folks either closely watched or kicked out of the group settings they try to gather into, mainly they have a number of small bands started at HQ and in the larger limbs, TWI has decided to hold a Songwriting seminar/class at Gunnison, so that all these potential music groups can begin writing songs that are regulated and "TWI" worthy... Yeah, good way to once again squelch the creativity..
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newlife
Well, I'll tell you that before I got into TWI, I was a musician, guitar, keyboard.....gave lessons on instruments as well as voice. Got into TWI and it was within months I was instructed to put down all music and only focus on the word.
So, I did. I stopped playing, writing songs, giving lessons etc etc. It totally messed with me because that was what I was good at and loved and to not do it, just crushed me. So for three years I had nothing to do with music. It wasn't until I went WOW, that the limb coordinator heard I used to play music and sing and he asked me to play and sing at the limb meeting. I said I can't....he said why not, and I said because I was told not to play music and focus on the word.
He said I think you should go ahead and do this, it's ok. I had to borrow a guitar cause I had sold mine...but I did one song. After that music was still a "dead" issue for me. No passion for it....lost it. After leaving TWI (and I was in for 13 years)...the first thing I wanted to do was music again...but I had no, absolutely no passion for it....it was gone. And it was really kind of strange as in my head I recalled my days prior to TWI and what I was doing and I so wanted to do that again...and I just could not Get the "passion" back. It was 13 years later that I befriended someone who actually helped me start playing again. But it took time even with that to get back into it and enjoy it. And truthfully, it has never meant as much to me now as it did prior TWI.
There's nothing "Fine" about Arts with no "Create"ivity.
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OldSkool
See, you bring up a topic and I remember more. I better separate this into a new thread.
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chockfull
We still get Hoho cards - like I want to see their fugly mugs. Somehow mine got thrown out before I could realize the true Photoshop value encased therein. But that there is a good idea!!!!! Maybe we can have a Photoshop contest around the holidays - a down to earth real life BOD - o - shop opportunity
If they're going to put them out for public consumption we might as well get some use out of them besides the standard use of birdcage lining.
The posters - I see better art walking down Elementary school halls. And LMAO about them being "confidential". Here's something that's not confidential - it's public knowledge, Frau Q-Tip - they SUCK!!!!!!
You see what they can't put together is that their planning process is really ineffective. That's because Frau and Frau-bootie-kissers don't realize that they are doing nothing more than worshipping their own thoughts!!!! Yes - your planning is just your thoughts!!!! And they are not to be worshipped, God is!!!! So Q-tip lady, your whole kit and kaboodle, your whole process and procedure is no more than your own personal idolatry that you have wrapped, packaged, and sold to those stupid enough to believe it. There is nothing inherently godly about your planning. It is nothing more than writing down your thoughts at a certain time, then revisiting them.
Here's an example planning session. "Let's do this". "OK - repeated 25 times". Then one month later - "Let's re-examine the idea". "OK - 25x". "Wow that was a great idea". "Yes it was - 25x". "Let's go with it". This snowballs to the point the longer a bunch of stooges have been yessing an idea to death it's solidified into something almost graven in stone like the 10 commandments.
Yes, they worship their plans. Which means they worship their own thinking from a previous time. Which means they worship the creation, not the Creator. They give a whole new meaning to the phrase "legends in their own mind".
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OldSkool
Great stuff!
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potato
this is an awesome topic.
twi destroyed my creativity (YES I SAID CREATIVITY) by telling me what/how/when to paint and draw. I got criticized a lot.
after I got out, I purposefully painted a bunch of stuff I knew twibots would say was devilish or unprofitable. I sold every one. I haven't had time to paint since, but at least I'm not worried about what they think. I have plans for a future project that includes lots of drawing and it won't be "on the word" at all. but it will be fun and good and fit a niche and it will make me happy.
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JavaJane
Just an update...
I now own and run my own business which involves a lot of culinary creativity...
AND I joined the choir at my church. Sang in the Advent Concert. And just finished singing in my first Mass as a choir member. I asked if I could join - didn't have to try out and prove myself, they just said great! and I was in. And I didn't have to wear a lame dress from the Lawrence Welk hand-me-down closet. I wore pants. Take that TWI! My sponsor from the classes I took last year wore JEANS and no one cared. Probably because she's an alto. :wink2:/>
AND THE BIGGEST THING: I am on the 7,204th word of a novel.
Yep. I am writing for real. A book TWI would never approve of. One I was afraid to write when I was in, because I would be labeled as possessed.
Congratulations to me.
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OldSkool
Must be a book about TWI.
Seriously, congrats and let me know if you need help with editing.
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