I'm Not Laughing Because It Isn't Funny

 


   "What happened to your wife?" C asked a man that was passing by our row at church. His wife was sitting in a pew with a crutch leaning next to her. We had watched her come in. One foot was in a plastic boot.

   "I tripped her," the man replied in a light tone of voice. "Then I kicked her a few times, she likes it." He then continued on his way to talk to another man before Sacrament meeting began.

   I froze in my seat for a minute. I couldn't believe what I had just heard. I was shocked. You might be thinking that I just heard a man admit to bettering his wife. I didn't. What I heard, in my eyes, was something much worse. I had just heard a man joke about battering his wife.

  I knew that he hadn't done what he said he did. I've known this couple from a distance for many years. She had actually tripped while they were hiking and had badly twisted her ankle. I'm certain that he would be surprised if he thought that I had taken him seriously. He has a strange sense of humour.

  There are some things that are not funny. According to several websites that I looked at about 33% of women in Minnesota have been victims of domestic violence and 25% of men have also been victimized. That is about 1 in 3 woman and 1 in 4 men. Those statistics are nothing to laugh at.

   Part of the reason why I can't laugh at this is because it's personal. Before I married C I was in a relationship with a man who was emotionally abusive. One of my stepdaughters was in a physically abusive relationship. One of my cousins by marriage was in an abusive marriage. She's out of the marriage, but the consequences persist to this day.

   Another reason why I can't laugh at this is because, to me, making a joke out of it is to imply that it isn't serious. It's no big deal. It can also demean the victims. Lighten up! It's just a joke. Stop being so sensitive! She/he didn't mean it!

   There are plenty of things that are funny in this world. There are all kinds of things that we can laugh and smile at. Joking about harm to another person shouldn't be one of them.

   



     

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