About a year and a half ago, I overheard a religious "discussion / debate" between two young men. I tried not to listen until certain JW buzzwords popped out. That's when I knew.
I had an out-of-body feeling come over me and I got up and walked over to the and introduced myself.
At that point in their conversation, the young JW fellow had spoken the word, "Apostates. . ."
I said to them something like this: "I'm sorry to interrupt your private conversation but I couldn't help but overhear you talking about me."
That got their attention.
I turned to the Witness and said, "I used to be exactly like you and now I'm an Apostate. But, the things you're saying just are factual--and I felt compelled to say something."
And off we went from that into an amazing adventure.
The JW has become, all these months afterward, like a son to me. No, really--we talk at least once or twice a week. He came by Starbucks yesterday all dressed up for door-to-door work. He brought a chess board. We played three games and I informally gave him advice and tips.
It is an amazing relationship which is so rewarding, I can't begin to explain what it does for my interior sense of worth.
Waking somebody up that young is a kind of Gift from the Universe.
Activism can have unseen trade-offs, long-term effects, and short-term manifestations. The little things we say are like time bombs.
In a good way:)
But the best by far, creating a relationship with a human being whose entire life will now be improved because of walking over and interrupting a conversation is beyond the telling.
I still can't tell you what came over me to make me butt in--it was something eerie--a truly ineffable feeling of "rightness" which I could not resist. A religious person would say, "I felt the 'calling'." :)
If we all can find a way to give in to the sense of balance involved in intruding into Jehovah's Witnesses' dream world for the sake of their quality of life--we could really make the world (not to get too maudlin about it) a better place, indeed.
