63- GOSSIP!...UNDER THE TABLE SOCIETAL SICKNESS.....

Gossip..."is idle talk or rumor, especially about the personal or private affairs of others."
Ask anyone, gossip usually has a negative connotation, but the same 'anyones' will often concede that they like to hear the 'dirt'.
A prime example of gossip fodder, recently, was dished out against Todd Palin. The rumor mills dug up the fact that he had pleaded guilty to a DUI! The gossip spread quickly, pushed fast and hard. Oh, did I mention that one important fact was left out, intentionally? The Gov. of Alaska's husband was 22 at the time! Make a difference?
A high school senior, excellent athlete and headed for college, was walking across a golf course late one night, went over behind a tree to relieve himself....period. A "friend" knew that and spread the word the next day in school that the guy was involved in a perverted act. Gossip spread rapidly within the confines of a public high school, and, by the end of the day, everyone was calling him a pervert. He went home after school and...ended his life.
There are no "checks and balances" for gossipers...it's all stacked against the one invovled, without the right or ability to TRY to undo the harm done. There is no opportunity to ask "how do you feel about the gossip"? Once the sickness of gossip begins, it feeds upon itself.
The early Virginians had a method of using stocks and pillories to punish!
This sociologist refuses to gossip, or to listen to it, period. As a Philosophy major, this collegian spent many hours and papers searching for the TRUTH and making sure that everything written or spoken and everybody was afforded an opportunity to listen and be heard! Power? Is the concept of ethics important in here?
The double agent?...plays both sides. I knew a 'teacher' who practiced that. The bloodhound agent?...sniffs out the slightest, uh, garbage. Same 'teacher'. The complainer?...I confess that I have to be alert to myself becoming a complainer that will provide fodder for another.
I believe that the lowest level of such gossip comes from a person who pretends to be your friend, and, at the first hint of gossip, jumps to stab you in the back and believe the garbage. Am I right?

Time to get unserious, though! Time to take that one ripe banana in the kitchen fruit bowl, lightly toast both sides of a fresh bagel and whup up a 'wich! Let's see, squire, remember to peel the 'nanner' from the opposite end of the stem...slice it in those little buttons...slather a smidgeon of real MAYO, MAYO, on the toasted bagel halves...neatly lay out the 'buttons' on the bottom half...close it together slowly...AND open wide...YUMMY for the tummy! Hey, why not even venture out to Baskin/Robbins or Jerry & Ben's this evening and go for it with a banana split? Hit the Rec Center tomorrow!