The Good People I Met at The Way International

 by Charlene L. Edge

Sometimes people who have not yet read my memoir, Undertow, get the impression from articles I write about The Way, that I think everyone ever involved with The Way was "bad."

Not true.

What I think is that an array of people with a myriad of interests, needs, and talents, were caught in the high-control group of The Way just as I was. Some of the kindest people you'd ever meet showed me love and understanding, and offered me support in many ways. Often.

The "people problem" I had with Way believers came about when it was discovered I no longer held Way beliefs as true, no longer clung to the belief that Wierwille was a great man of God. Then I was shunned by loyalists who could not accept my change of heart and mind.

Sadly, when a person rejects the beliefs and practices of a group they were enmeshed in for years and years, they usually lose the friends who remain in the group. So, they must start over. They must make a new path in life and find new friends. That's what happened to me.

The upside for me is that a couple of people I was friends with in The Way left the organization around the same time I did, and we've remained friends ever since. Our close ties have stood the test of time. Friendship for friendship's sake lives on for us. 

For that, I'm deeply humbled.

Undertow is available from all major booksellers in paperback and eBook. Libraries and indie bookstores can order it for you, too.

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