Gossip

I'll bet you thought this pot would be a stern rebuke to those who engage in an evil deed, but I'm not some Mormon extremist! I decided that since I mentioned my vice in the last post, I should do a bit more explaining in my own defense. I admittedly love gossip. I love it more than most things and definitely more than I should, but it's not my fault at all. I learned it from my family. We love gossip. We gossip about each other, we gossip about people we know, we gossip about people we have never met. The first thing my sister asks every time I call her is "What's the gossip?" and I always happily respond. Pretty much, if you're reading this post, my family has talked about you at one time or another.

I remember at one point in my adolescence I was in a church meeting with a rather emphatic woman addressing a group of youth from the pulpit. I don't remember what she was talking about but I do remember that she said: "Gossip is ordained of God. Look! It's in the scriptures." I think that she made some sort of tie-in to a scripture about speaking highly of others around you, but I'll never know for sure. I just stammered an audible "Amen" and started looking around to see if anyone I knew was hooking up.

You may think that this petty banter of half-truths and exaggerated anecdotes might be damaging to the people that we are speaking of, but in reality we are doing the world a favor by spreading around joy and good entertainment. If you don't believe me, ask any kid at the Boys and Girls Club why I am their favorite staff member. It's not going to be because I believed in them when no one else did or because I helped them get an A in their hardest class, it's because I knew that Courtney told Jose that Tiffany was cheating on him because she wanted Jose to date her, and that Romero asked Lisa out twice after he found out that she was willing to break up with her boyfriend for him, and I knew that Natalie's boyfriend Jake flirted with Melanie at the pool and told her not to tell Natalie.

Bottom Line: There's a love that is shown by knowing everyone's dirty little secrets that can't be proved in any other way.