Loose Lips Will Sink Ships ...

MY Grandmother used to say of Gossip - "Loose lips will sink ships ..." As a child I though it was an odd comment, but as I learned more about the 6 years my Grandfather spent in the Royal Canadian Navy plying the icy waters of the North Atlantic during the Second World War I began to understand where her comment came from. Comments about the movement of ships and convoys, could, if uttered in the wrong place, or shared with the wrong person, result in some rather nasty outcomes ... It was war, and the protection of our men and women in uniform was key.

Yet, for some reason, the propensity to gossip, and to BELIEVE the gossip continues.

I can recall a moment many years ago when a young woman who's life had been through more than its fair share of downs and plunges, sat devestated by the gossip that was passing around the local coffee row about her. We talked for a long time, she wept and I watched as her hope and her confidence ebbed away, until finally I said simply - "why are you listening to what a group of people who spend hours of their day sitting around smoking and drinking coffee and sniping at everyone else?" Her face brightened and soon the comments began to simply roll off her back ...

Gossip is usually passed on by insecure, small minded and spiteful people who live in a place of jealousy, wherein they MUST pull others down to give themselves a sense of achievement and success ... In short - Gossip is pathetic ... and those who engage in it are by association (and action) pathetic as well.

Over the last few months many rumours and gossip tales have been passed around about me. Most of them are simply laughable, ALL of them - EVERY last one is untrue. The sad thing from where I sit though, is that too many of them have been handed on and on and on as the "Gospel" truth. But such is the reality of small town gossip.

In recent days, I've seen the power of small town conversation when it comes to caring for a neighbour, and caring about each other ... we can pass updates, concerns and prayers. That's the positive side of small town and the conversations over coffee row. But when those conversations turn to gossip and unsubstantiated rumours and stories - then the ugly side of small towns comes out ...

It's a choice ... one too many people make poorly ... The challenge now is stem the tide of gossip and to silence the small minded spiteful people who would begin such hateful nonsense ...

Oh and for the record: I have never lost my license for Drinking and Driving. I'm NOT that stupid, but I DO know where THAT story started. I never caused the firing of a person here in town, but I almost lost MY job trying to get his job back when he lost it of his own actions. I never took money that didn't belong to me, but I DO have to wonder why that rumour got started. And most of the other things about me that have passed around town - well, consider the source and decide accordingly ...