My wife and I went to a concert on Friday night. There was a friend of ours there doing security, and she happens to be an exjw too. She sent me a message on messenger to inform me that my brother and his wife were at the show, not knowing that I'd be there too. So I told her where we were at and she swung by and pointed out my brother and his wife. There they were, just across from us, with really few people in the way as it was before the show started.
I looked at my wife and said that I think I want to go say hi. She thought it was a big deal, but it didn't feel like one to me. She agreed to come with and we walked up to them at the side. We appeared in front of them, I waved and said hi, and they waved at me and said hi...............for a moment. It was fascinating to watch their process. It was friendly, and almost in the exact same moment they both turned red and then looked to their right.
I laughed, said oooooohhhhhhkay, and then we walked back to our spot on the other side. Immediately, literally as soon as we got back, before we had a chance to say anything to one another or process anything one of our new friends since we've been out appeared out of thin air behind us. Her smiling face was the first thing we saw, and we talked to her about normal things for a minute. Then I saw another new friend of ours coming up the aisle toward us, and he stopped and talked to us. It was so interesting, like the universe said "here are your real friends" immediately after this experience. It felt good.
Afterward we had a chance to talk, just my wife and I. I felt so amazing. I just made them actively shun me. For a split second their humanity kicked in, and they turned red because they know deep down how messed up this is. Then the indoctrination kicked in and they looked away in disgust. I never really had to shun anyone in person that I cared about, that has to be hard. JWs expected the shunned ones to be shamed and never see them again. I'm not going out like that. I've made it clear since day one that I'm still here and human, and I exhibited my humanity, as did my wife, while they had to go into shun mode in stark contrast.
I feel for my brother and his wife. That has to be super hard to do to people in their face. It's one thing to walk to a different aisle of the super market, but to have someone say hi in a pleasant manner and then have to be a total douche to them has to cause some dissonance. I hope it did. Having to shun one of my brothers, who just disappeared to another state so I never did shun him in person, was super hard for me. It felt messed up once I got healthy after many years, and I reached out to him because I couldn't even do the shunning thing when we were worlds apart forever. I just can't imagine if he had approached me in person. Then again, I tried reaching out after my brother was dfed, so I guess I never was the best shunner anyway because ultimately, I cared about people. I'd love to know what my brother and his wife were talking about over there after we walked away.
Oh, and shame on him and his wife for being at a concert that even apostates would go to, lol.