Biodegradable Gossip

We all have fallen victim to gossip.  We hear it around the water cooler.  We get reports from TMZ.  Our mothers, mothers-in-law, the neighbor in apartment 3D.  What makes one gossip and what makes one listen to it?

Gossip can originate from anywhere.  A disgruntled employee.  A cowardice ex. A nosy, chatty Cathy.  Over time we learn who to ignore.  We know to take certain things coming from a certain person's mouth with a grain of salt.  We know to wait for a beloved cup of coffee until the office snitch leaves the break room.

Gossip has different levels of ignorance.  For example, if the National Enquirer is your bible, you have a very loose definition of reality - the entire publication is a form of gossip - flat-out lies.

The next level of gossip can be compared to People (or 'Poop-le' as it's referred to in my house).  There is some truth to the stories, but they center around celebrities who make their living off of getting into and staying in the spotlight.  They WANT to be the talk of the town. Any press is good press.

But the fine line between fact and fiction is sometimes tough to decipher.  Every lie starts somewhere.  Every story has an origin.  And every person has their own perception as to what is fact and what is fiction.  It is what his or her audience chooses to believe that is important to them.

If you want to get the best gossip in town (especially in Podunkville, KANSAS), visit the local coffee shop, bakery or gas station.  There is no privacy in these towns.  Everyone knows everyone else's business and has an opinion about it.  In these towns gossip is actually a source of news.

However, gossip in the real world is not real news.  It's people telling stories to get attention.  If they wanted to share real news with people, they would be reporters on the local television station.  Individuals who gossip do not realize that what they are doing could hurt someone or someones.

There is a scene in the 2008 movie, Doubt, where a woman confesses to Philip Seymour Hoffman - playing Father Brendan Flynn - that she is guilty of gossiping (there would be a line out the church door if everyone went to confession for gossiping).  He takes her to the roof of the building (no, not to kill her - spoiler alert) and proceeds to shred a down pillow.  As all of the feathers traveled with the wind to find a resting place, he tells the woman her gossip, her stories, her lies are like those feathers...they are out there and she can't get them all back.

In discussing this scene, a very wise woman looked at it from a different angle than Fr. Flynn.  "What if the feathers represented gossip that was spread about you?  You can either spend your time trying to round up the feathers, stressing about the falsehoods or you can let the feathers fall where they may and realize you have no control over what others say about you."

Gossip doesn't go away.  Once the stories, lies and untruths are spoken or written, they live forever.  They, like the feathers, are out there, scattered, unable to be retrieved.  But, unlike the feathers, they don't dissolve.  Gossip is not biodegradable.  Recyclable, yes.  Biodegradable, no.