Rumours ...... Tales by Tongue

The rumour mill ….. aaah that ever churning, ever flowing channel of miscommunication and misinformation to which so many people have a lifelong subscription.

How is it that some people simply want to hear something, anything, as long as they can repeat it to a myriad of other people, thereby discrediting someone, or harming them verbally, without even stopping to consider the harm they do, or the untruths and half-truths they carry forward?

How is it that some people simply want to say something, anything as long as …………. repeat paragraph above

I have a friend, about whom a stupid and senseless rumour was started recently.   It was wrong, it was misinformed and it was totally unsupported.  But the person who started it did so anyway and of course nothing like a juicy, incorrect story to spread like wildfire.  Did anyone take the time to verify the story with my friend?  No, because they did not have time to stop in their marathon of repetition cycle.  The person was then given the correct info, and they apologised, but once you blow your cigarette smoke out your lips, there is no way you can suck it all back …. it is out there …. gone …. spreading around.  And this friend deserved way more respect than that.

Someone decided I had had a bumper bashing …… so the story was told like that …. a simple bump …… the truth was something else completely ….. in fact a severe something else ……. did the repeater of the story bother to clarify …. did they bother to check if we were ok in the week?  Nope, too busy repeating the story of how I was off when there was nothing really wrong with me.  Always amusing when a lay person knows better than a trauma doctor.  What a waste to study for all those years.   When they saw me they realised their error ……. too late she cried.

Everyone at some stage plays this game, but some people?  Some people get their Masters degree in Rumouritis ….. hanging over other people like vultures, waiting for the opportunity to spread their venom.  It is actually a very sad reflection of those people’s lives that their joy comes from such behaviour.

And so it goes, rumours abound ….. why bother to say something truthful, when there is a half-truth waiting in the wings.  People comment on other people’s jobs, families, children, lifestyle and on and on, they interfere and make their own conclusions, often incorrect and harmful, about others.

So as a kid told me a little while ago ……… zip your lip if you can’t be nice.  In this case, zip it if you don’t have the facts.

Amen to that.

Till next time

c’est la vie xxxx