I've had a strange experience with a certain Jehovah's Witness that I work with. It seems that I gravely offended her. I'm not sure if this would offend every Jehovah's Witness, but it did offend this woman who happens to be of that faith.
What did I do? Something horrible, I gave her a card in December.
I was trying to be nice, I thought I'd give cards out to all the people I work with to spread a little holiday cheer. Thinking myself to be quite culturally enlightened, I bought cards that read: "Season's Greetings to you and yours." No mention of any specific holiday, just a token of friendship. Inside the card of said offended coworker, I wrote: It's been a pleasure working with you. Happy New Year!"
When I handed her the card, she said "What's this?" and I said "It's a card."
Duh
She then opened the card, and I could tell by the look on her face that she was not happy about it. She read what I had written, and then said, "You know, you really shouldn't give these out. I don't celebrate holidays."
Confused me mumbled out something about how the card doesn't mention any holidays. She then asked me why I had chosen to give the card to her then, instead of say, in August. I replied that this is the season when people do that sort of thing. She went on to explain to me that this season is no more or no less special than all the other seasons of the year and that giving her a card was quite rude. She said something similar to everyone who gave her a card or brought in a plate of cookies.
For weeks after that, she was really formal with me and made it known that she was pissed. So much for trying to be nice.
01/11/02 Note:
I originally wrote this w/u under How to offend any Jehovah's Witness. Most of the "How To Offend..." nodes are/were being purged, so kind gentle Quizro gave me the chance to move it here. I've worked a lot more with the forementioned coworker and have come to realize that she's just an insecure nutso who feels the need to constantly draw attention to her "faith" by making scenes like the one I described. Just another example that every group in the world has its bad seeds.