Hurtful Humor

Last week, I stumbled into a powerful conversation about humor and began thinking about some things. I thought I would share them with you. You test them and see what you think:

• People abuse and misuse humor...and it hurts others.
• I often observe people using jokes as jabs to devalue and invalidate people. And it is sad.
• Passive aggression is often quite noticeable in people's jokes. Folks that are too cowardly to say something to someone in a healthy and constructive way, will take the "easy" way out and tuck it into a joke.
• I have often said that there is a certain percentage of truth in every joke.

Here's the deal. I catch myself doing this too...and I do not like it. I want to raise our awareness to be people of peace, integrity and honesty. If you need to say something to someone, you owe it to them to say it straight so they get it, not tuck it into a joking jab!

Pay attention to your dual-intentioned comments.