In my 46 years I have known a lot of people. Only one time did I become involved with a JW-and that for 3 years. Since we broke up I find myself constantly confronted with them in both my personal and professional life and I can't figure out why. My best friend says I'm supposed to learn something from it, but I can't figure out what. I long ago gave up trying to change other people. I can only change myself.
Recently I auditioned for and made it onto a performance swing dance team. I was asking the director what costumes we would wear and she said, "Well, we wanted to do a sailor motif, but one of the guys can't wear any kind of uniform because of his religious beliefs." I said, "He's a JW isn't he?" She said, "How did you know?" If he's on the hell train - I'm sure it can't be a borg approved activity to be on a performance swing dance team!- why not wear the uniform?
I went to visit my family in rural Alabama. Guess who came to the door bright and early Sat morning? I rent out the facility where I work for special events. Recently a woman rented it for a formal dance for her daughter. I thought maybe they were home schooled and this would be like the equivalent of a prom. Nope. They're JWs! And spending a bundle on this event with facility rental, renting a dance floor, etc. This is not the first group of JWs I have rented to in the last year. The group before this utterly trashed the place-burned holes and spilled wax on the tablecloths, blew out one of the speakers, looked like they had a food fight in the kitchen-it took me 2 hours to clean that up!
Why am I meeting these people at every turn?! I am at a loss as to what to say when they swell with pride and announce that "of course everyone loves to rent to us-we're JWs!" like there is some kind of golden seal of approval on them. I want them to just leave me alone! Am I destined to go through life with one stapled to me? Does anyone else see them as much as I do?
My nature is to argue, convince, pepper them with facts and show them their misguided ways, and in a much younger incarnation I would have done just that. Now I know that each person must live their life according to their own beliefs, and it is not up to me to change the world, just to make me the best me I can be. But damn, they annoy me!
Any advice? Symapathy? Words of wisdom?
Little1
Sometimes when it rains it pours.There are less than 1 million JW's in the usa,with a general population of+300 million.. So they are much less than 1% of the pop.