G is for Gossip....

Nothing like a juicy piece of gossip, eh? Yeah, but that doesn't mean it's right.

One of my favorite games when I was a little kid was telephone. Everyone sits in a circle or in a line and the first person whispers a message into the ear of the person sitting next to them. The message is then similarly passed along 'til it reaches the final participant. You can only say the message once to your neighbor. It was always a riot to hear what crazy words came out at the end.

Well, that's how I feel gossip is too! The story gets changed, twisted and tweaked a little here and there until it is completely off from the truth (or from the original rumor).

One time, in college, I ran into a guy that had been in a lower budget film. I had had a crush on him a few years before that. You can imagine my surprise on running into him, finding out it was his hometown. I told a few friends and family of my surprise run-in. I still had a bit of a crush on him so I was talking to a friend of a friend about setting us up (he knew the guy, personally). This, too, was being reported to my relatives and friends back in my home state.

Well, midterms hit about then and I got busy and also got over that teen crush of mine and therefore the set-up never took place. A few weeks later I ran into a gal from my home town, who heard from her mother, who heard from a friend, who heard from etc... that I was ENGAGED to that guy. HELLO!?!?!?! Well that gossip definitely was twisted and tweaked, at warp speed, apparently!

I find it best to not repeat anything until I have talked to person who is the subject of the gossip. (Even if the gossip nice, don't spread it unless you heard it from the horse's mouth and they want it spread). (Yeah, and how often is gossip nice?!) Yes, be a truth-seeker, friends, not a mudslinger!!