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To Gossip Or Not To Gossip,
What do we do?
Gossip is one of those things that are "bad". It's just considered bad, to be a "gossip", at least in all the moral stories and platitudes and whatnot. And I've found that although childish, those sort of generalizations are generally true. For example, Humpty Dumpty is damned hard to put back together again. But really, those things are often true. Greed and jealousy are useless, and money isn't really that gratifying, and what really matters are good friends and all that kind of stuff. That's all true.
So how am I to feel about this gossip business? I don't feel like a gossip, I simply am interested in my friends lives, right? It seems like a fine line to walk, between being an interested and concerned friend and a vendor of rumor and private secrets. I dunno. I guess since I really only do talk to my friends about their lives, or to my friends about other friends lives its not that bad, but is that really a justification? By the same token however, I would feel bad if a friend wanted to talk, and I responded by saying I didn't want to "gossip".
As much as I hate saying this is the solution (because it often isn't), we really should just think about it, and consider what we are saying and who we are saying it to. Gossip can really hurt people despite how it can provide passing amusement. But honestly, just go read a book. Learn something useful. Or play a computer game. That's always fun too.
Speaking of computer games and video games. They are excellent. There are few things as honestly amusing that are also so damn entertaining. Seriously. It's as guilt-free as reading a book but with more charred polar bear corpses (see: Crash Bash).
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