Jessica Moe

Far be it from me to stand on my pulpit and preach (yeah right!) but in doing some research recently online I found some powerful comments on a hot topic–Gossip.

Here is a poem I found called “Who am I?” (here is a link to where I found it, the comments are interesting)

I have no respect for justice.
I maim without killing.
I break hearts and ruin lives.
I am cruel and malicious
and gather strength with age

The more I am quoted,
the more I am believed.
I flourish at every level of society.
My victims are helpless.
They cannot protect themselves
against me because
I have no name and no face.

To track me down is impossible.
The harder you try,
the more elusive I become.
I’m nobody’s friend.

Once I tarnish a reputation,
it is never the same.
I topple governments
and ruin marriages.
I ruin careers and
cause sleepless nights,
Heartache, and indigestion.

I spawn suspicion
and generate grief.
I make innocent people
cry in their pillows.
Even my name hisses.

I, AM GOSSIP

Submitted by Glen Stewart

Ok, also…there is a story I heard a long time ago about a Rabbi and the town gossip…I found it online although not in the same way I initially heard it:

There is a 19th century folktale about a man who went about town slandering the town’s wise man. One day, he went to the wise man’s home and asked for forgiveness. The wise man, realizing that this man had not internalized the gravity of his transgressions, told him that he would forgive him on one condition: that he go home, take a feather pillow from his house, cut it up, and scatter the feathers to the wind. After he had done so, he should then return to the wise man’s house.

Though puzzled by this strange request, the man was happy to be let off with so easy a penance. He quickly cut up the pillow, scattered the feathers, and returned to the house.

“Am I now forgiven?” he asked.

“Just one more thing,” the wise man said. “Go now and gather up all the feathers.”

“But that’s impossible. The wind has already scattered them.”

“Precisely,” he answered. “And though you may truly wish to correct the evil you have done, it is as impossible to repair the damage done by your words as it is to recover the feathers. Your words are out there in the marketplace, spreading hate, even as we speak.”

How interesting it is that we, as human beings, so quick to believe the bad that others say about someone; so accepting of the “news” contained in print and television tabloids, and so ready to assume the worst regarding another’s actions, actually allow ourselves to believe that the evil “we” spread about someone won’t really matter. Incredible that we can’t seem to immediately and resolutely accept the fact that the gossip we speak can - and often does - significant damage to that person.

And now, some random assorted quotes:

Whoever gossips to you will gossip about you.  ~Spanish Proverb

Without wood, a fire dies down. Without gossip, a quarrel dies down. ~Biblical Quote

Ill deeds are doubled with an evil word. ~ Shakespeare