I was kind of afraid of that. Historically, I have tended to use humor, in part because it's just natural to me, but also because laughing is better than crying. Joking about it allows me to mitigate my own pain. I’ve also kind of felt like humor allowed me to broach a painful subject in a non-threatening way. It’s hard to explain, but the feeling was that if I was too serious, then W would take it as an attack or as pointing out a shortcoming of hers and wouldn’t be too receptive. I felt like approaching it with a little humor would keep the subject on the table, but in a way that wasn’t really accusatory. All of which probably means that I was just indulging myself in my typical conflict avoiding ways and trying to rationalize it as the best approach.
But in any case, I've had this growing suspicion that since I joke about it, W doesn't think it's serious. Stopping the jokes is something I know I can do fairly easily. I think I’ll try it.
