Gossip

 Todays' subject is... gossip.

I'll take a quote from my novella, as yet unpublished in paper copy, for sale to the public,...

"The trees moved now in secret messages but Simmy couldn't quite grasp what that message was. She concentrated very hard staring at the tree- gossiping leaves that seemed all atwitter with excitement. The gossip didn't seem the bitter kind, you know, the kind that sends out demons to search for the blood of the innocent. No, quite the opposite, it was the kind that scatters seeds of perfectly blooming poppies. This red justice promise was something to anticipate just like Aunt Bea's field of spring poppies." (The Red Dust Healers by El Dueck- I give myself permission to change my publishing name for future books, possibly my maiden name, Guenter. As yet, this is undetermined.)

I did put a quote from my novella in The Orchard Walk by El Dueck but it was a different quote from this one. 

So, I actually wrote this book, The Red Dust Healers, circa 2010, before I wrote The Orchard Walk.

Writing should have a goal, therefore, a writer should have a goal in mind when writing something. My goal, today, is to warn people about the dangers of gossip. I sincerely hope I will not have to write about the damaging effects of gossip to people I know and love.

Let's begin...

The first question each of us should ask when someone says something about another person is...

Is it true?

I believe this is the most crucial aspect that will be required of a 'gossiper' to prove. 

One of the worst employees I ever had to 'cull from the pack,' when I managed a tiny restaurant, was a young woman who just loved to repeat gossip. She was like the recording device on your phone... she would listen to everyone she worked with, and then, she would drop these 'mind recorded' statements about other people into the conversations, pretending innocence, as she created a whirlwind of trouble. 

It took me a while to figure out who the offender was, creating such trouble amongst the staff. There was one interesting fact about this behaviour. The offender never talked about herself. She only repeated things other people said... to be clear, she repeated anything said by male or female. That was the only part of her offense that was non- discriminatory. 

What was the result of her habitual, bad habit of gossip?

The atmosphere within the group of staff became hostile, unfriendly, and mistrusting. People didn't smile, laugh, or have fun. They just looked for a better job.

There was only one bright light of hope that resulted from that situation. 

Ordinarily, the people 'being trashed' by a gossiper get such a bad reputation that they have to leave that group and go find a more decent group but, due to the quick thinking of the manager, myself, I found a way for that person to see that a different group would be better for her. She put in her resignation and the only person who had a lasting reputation of 'badness' was 

'the gossiper.'