Outrage

I've been quiet the past week or two on this blog, but it is my intention to keep writing here.  It was SOOOO good to go back to school and start teaching The Little Prince to my seventh graders, to have deep "life chats" with all my students and to feel so connected.  At the same time, a mix of jet lag, bronchitis and winter weather just were a perfect storm for post-trip emotions to do their war dance in my brain, and I needed a little space to regroup.  My goal for this blog is to be insightful and uplifting, and if I can't have a hopeful takeaway, I choose not to write.

And yet, this post is called Outrage.


There are so many things I could be outraged about after the trip, but what has got my goat right now is an exhibit in Estonia.  The goal of this exhibit is to show the Holocaust in a new light: the light of humor.  With exhibits such as the Hollywood sign being replaced by "Holocaust", slogans such as "There's no business like Shoah business", videos of people playing tag in gas chambers (UGH) and photoshopped pictures of smiling prisoners in awful settings, this exhibit mocks the suffering of millions of people by using humor.  When I read about it yesterday, I was just utterly disgusted.

Here's the thing:  I love a good laugh.  My Facebook feed is filled with puns and cartoons.  When I fall down or get hurt, I usually laugh at myself before showing that I'm hurt.  And I find that gentle laughter can often de-escalate a sticky situation.  In the past few years, I've learned a lot about how to cheer myself up through humor, and it's made my life so much better.

But this exhibit's premise crossed a line. A very important line.  This exhibit used laughter to poke fun at pain and torture.  And I cannot tolerate that.

So, what is my positive takeaway?  

One of my students made me laugh the other day with a clever joke:

"What was "was" before "was" was "was"?"

---- "Was" was "Is".


I just thought it was so clever and it tickled my funny bone.

If someone's "was" was previously a tortured "is", you should not mock it.  Instead, you should celebrate life force, kindnesses and resilience that helped the person survive and hopefully thrive.

If someone's "was" was a joyous or goofy "is", then you can laugh about it. And well you should.

Use laughter to help the world, not to hurt it.

So...this was more of a rant than usual, but thanks for listening!
If you aren't outraged, you're not listening...

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