I’ve written many times before about the need to talk less. There is one specific talk that needs to be way less. That is, of course, the terrible and useless discourse of gossip.
No good has ever come from this. People get hurt. Words that don’t need to be spread get spread. Damage is done.
My two rules of thumb are this: You don’t need to know everything. Not everyone needs to know what you know.
Stop gossiping
There are some things that are true, relevant, and important but have their time and place to be told.
In our fast media age, many people aspire to be real-life versions of those who proudly type “FIRST” when they are the first to comment on an article on Facebook or Twitter.
We’ve lost the care of letting people control their own communications, usually about their own selves, and feel the need to take everything heard in the small public and bring it to the larger public.
That is not your duty or obligation. If it’s not about you, don’t tell anyone else.
Backtrack, backtrack, backtrack.
Some good can come out of sharing others’ challenges and tragedies with others.
Sometimes there is a need to ask for prayers and other support. But, by golly, ONLY do this out of necessity and humility. Don’t pride yourself on being the town crier.
If this is you, set up the prayer chain, the meal train, or other means of support. Do more than being the sharer of news.
Stop gossiping
We all want to know things.
We are called to know God, among other things, so the act of knowing is very important to us and our faith.
But we don’t have to know everything.
Again, there is a time for everything.
It’s easy to feel whole and fulfilled if we know the full story, especially if it has nothing to do with us, but we just HAVE to know.
No, we don’t.
I shouldn’t blame the “media” again, but here we are, technology makes it so easy to get whatever knowledge we want about almost anything.
How dare we not know the latest about what’s going on with so-and-so especially when others know it.
Oh! That’s it! It’s a competition. How dare someone know something we want to know and we don’t know it yet.
Pray for patience.
Pray for humility.
If you need to know it, you’ll know it.
Stop gossiping
I probably haven’t made my point clear, but we should all stop gossiping.
It’s going to be a hard practice and may involve a complete shift in action and thought from when we were very young.
But we do want to grow up, someday, right?
Let’s assume we all gossip, determine when we do it, and stop doing it.
And if you think I’m talking about you . . . maybe I am . . .
Thank you for reading.
I’m praying for you.