There is so much good in the worst of us,
And so much bad in the best of us,
That it hardly becomes any of us
To talk about the rest of us.
~Edward Wallis Hoch
Her heart rate increases, her mind rides an almost pre-orgasmic high, this moment; this sliver of artfully edited information drives her to that place where she finds happiness in our misery.
I am no saint. I am guilty of indulging in gossip myself. So tasty it is, so easy to swallow; such entertainment! How pitiful, how boring, how miserable must our lives be that we depend on a creator of misery to bring us artificial laughter and joy?
Well, as one blogger rants: “Man is a social animal who loves to gossip”. If you’re not spreading it then you’re listening to it, you’re definitely enjoying gossip in some form. It isn’t until you’re bitten in the rear end that you perhaps, hopefully, learn your lesson about the dangerous art of gossiping.
If gossip was banned from any office then at least one person would shrivel up and die. You know it and I know it. Gossiping, or name talking as we Caribbean people like to call it, is bread and water for the name talkers.
Don’t shun them though. It’s not their fault. When you think about it, mastering the tongue is a very difficult thing to do. Maybe they should use the tongue for more constructive things. Like what? I haven’t a clue.
Gossipers are some of the most creative people. And I speak from experience when I tell you that they’ve got quite an imagination. Like take for instance, not so long ago after a bout of flooding in the city – yes you know how Guyana always getting flooded out – I got a stomach virus.
Well would you believe by the time the gossip got to me I heard that I was pregnant with twins? Alright, maybe I’m exaggerating a bit here. It wasn’t twins. But pregnant! Yeesh! Imagine you can’t even get sick in this place anymore.
Then there was the time my former fiancé decided he wanted to drive a different vehicle every day. Of course you know that meant that I had a different man every night. An anonymous caller spoke with him one night and told him that his woman just got in a white car.
Ha! He turned to me that night, a bit incredulous that someone would do that, and asked me why I was cheating on him with himself! What if I’d been sitting in my cousin’s white car that night?
Was this the beginning of gossip war? Of course not! You don’t need me to tell you what you already know. I let the matter ride but I read online today that the best way to deal with a gossiper is to confront them about the rumour.
Confronting a gossiper isn’t such a bright idea when you work with him/her. How do you deal with gossipers then? It’s simple. Stop being a hypocrite! Stop listening to gossip! Get a life! If you didn’t listen, you wouldn’t hear and you wouldn’t be emotionally stressed. Be the better person, be professional.
(srh.midnight@gmail.com)
