Day Four (of Seven)

I frequently use writing prompts in my teaching and coaching. In fact, when the pandemic lockdown began in the Northeast, I had a regular weekly group and later developed a course under the umbrella of Prompted Expression. In the spirit of sparking my own creativity and getting ideas for my students and clients, I’ve decided to write from a prompt for seven consecutive days and share the results. The prompts are from a deck of cards called Actually Curious.

Writing Prompt Four: Is there anything too serious to be joked about?

I have over 30 first cousins. While I’m not close to all of them, I have great affection for each one.

A few years ago, a cousin I’ve shared many laughs with over the years made a rape joke in a comment on one of my Facebook posts about something that was happening in the news. He made reference to a woman who he said was too ugly to be raped. I deleted the comment and unfriended him immediately.

It made me sad to do it, but because he’d said it publicly I would have been in a position to either defend or condemn him when the Facebook locusts swarmed. As well they should have. The comment was reprehensible.

I love dark humor, sometimes bordering on twisted. I laughed at a Halloween costume photo that went viral a few years ago that was a guy dressed as Bill Cosby with a cocktail and a…