I never have to deal with this problem as nobody where I live knows I was a dub and I haven't been back home in a while. I've thought about what I would do if I ran into some of them and figured I would act like I didn't see them but Amazing has me thinking I would do exactly as he says. I'm a smartass...I think I may enjoy that!
Has this happened to you?
by ball. 14 Replies latest jw friends
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ball.
Yeah, well I suppose it all comes down to exactly who it is you bump into.
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nilfun
He just looked at me and then put on a really big smile. There was a few seconds while I waited to see if he was going to talk to me, but nothing was said. You may imagine it was an awkward few seconds, but strangely it was not.
Those non-verbal moments of communication, for me, feel quite amazing.
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Corvin
Yes, I have lived in this town my whole life, and can't go to the grocery store without running into someone I know. Reactions vary. I have had the same kind of encounter you just shared with us, and by far, my favorite silent communication was between me and the brother who studied with me when I was a teenager, now an elder.
His own son married out of the org, yay for him, and I have not seen this brother in about 10 years. A few months ago, I attended a local congregation at a different Kingdom Hall that amazingly consisted of all the same bros and sisses that use to go to the other hall when I was a kid. Anyway, this brother, Don T, who looks just like Robert Mitchum, was running a mic during the WT study. She stood next to me and deliberately turned his head and looked right down at me. His look said, "You need to quit fooling around and get back to the org before I give you a spanking." That look use to intimidate me. I just looked right up at him and crossed my eyes and stuck my index finger in my nose.
Talk about breaking a moron's pattern.
My other favorite encounter was when I recently attended a high school orientation meeting with about 200 other parents and their kids in the school's gymnasium. Sitting to our right about 25 feet away was the PO from my exwife's congregation, his kids and his sister, Bambi (who sits in the front of the Hall with her elder husband, Benny Hana, and her brother, JD the mighty PO since he was 36-ish, and cranes her neck to see what is going on behind her and is the spiritual PEZ dispenser of disapproving looks) They kept looking over at me and my kids with their snotty looks, then would lean into eachother whispering shite about us . . . then look over again. I mean sooooo rude, so unloving, and so obvious.
I said nothing or did nothing until my two daughters said something to me about it. It hurt them and bothered them to have someone that is suppose to be loving give such dirty looks as if they were better than we. I thought, ok, I am now going to show my girls that they do not have to take that shite from morons like them. That they had nothing to fear from people like them, that the hypocriters could do nothing to them.
I said, "girls, watch this".
I waited for them to look over at me again. When they did, I casually had both birds flying high enough for them to see clearly. They all looked quickly away as though they were going to faint. My daughters have rarely laughed so hard.
They did not look over at us anymore after that.
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flower
My decision to move 300 miles from my hometown was partially made based on the fact that I ran into family and jw's everywhere I went. It was a small town and at the time I was uncomfortable by the situation. After two years of working on myself though I dont think it would be a problem. I would treat them just like any other old friend of mine and if they spoke to me or not I could care less. I wouldnt be looking to humiliate them by taking the initiative to speak first but I certainly would do it to make them think of how horrible their cult requires them to act.