Have you heard the latest news? According to a reliable news source, the Tommy Douglas statue will be moved from Weyburn. It was suggested that a new location for the statue would either be Winnipeg, Toronto or Scotland.
Now imagine that you had heard this information, and took your time to consider the implications of something that was so important to your community … and then I told you “April Fools!”
In this day and age, especially with concerns of identity theft and scams that target the trusting, it is very important to remember to consider any jokes that you might be planning. After all, in many ways, the person playing the joke is more often considered the ‘fool’, than the person who is the victim.
When someone plays a joke on you, or betrays your trust in another manner, it becomes very hard for you to trust them in the future. We all want to feel that we can trust our friends, trust our news sources, and that the information they tell us — even on April Fool’s — is reliable and dependable information.
There is always time to share a laugh with a friend, or tell a good-humored joke or tale that can be appreciated by everyone in your social circle. But there are some incidents when a prank or joke go too far, and you actually offend someone else. So you have to be careful when you consider pranking someone.
In a way, perhaps April Fool’s itself should be adapted and changed. After all, many people don’t even know the true history behind the date itself (and not some tale that has been told, but never proven).
Instead, it should be a day of reflection, much like how on New Year’s Eve we reflect on the past year.
Consider the fact that scam or fraud attempts can happen on any day, in any season and at any time. So perhaps we should all take a moment on April 1 to reflect on any challenges or incidents where we had to deal with scams or fraud in our life. Perhaps April 1 could become a day where we raise more awareness about fraud and scam prevention, instead of implying that it is still socially acceptable to play tricks and try to fool others in your life.
No one likes to be considered the fool. No one likes to feel that they were a target of a prank or joke either.
One of the challenges of our culture is that there is still a large focus on laughing at other people’s misfortunes and their challenges. We still have those ‘Blooper Shows’, that showcase the mistakes other people have caught on tape for others to laugh at. We still have slap-stick incidents in our TV and movie programs, where all an actor has to do is get physically hurt in some humorous way for us to laugh.
Laughter is a good way to share a bond with other people in our community. We enjoy sharing laughable moments that are entertaining and enjoyable. They give us that little reminder that there is still joy in our life, even with the other challenges we might be facing. It is a good thing to find something to laugh about. However, I still feel that we should exercise more caution when it comes to laughing at other people. After all, none of us want to be the fool.
