Imagine, if you will, the life of a juicy piece of gossip.

Imagine if you could see it’s origin and watch the path it took to fall on your ears.

Imagine if you could follow the course of action each person took upon hearing it themselves.

Then imagine those that didn’t hear it, those left in the dark to it’s very existence.

What if you could apply your knowledge of this juicy little tidbit directly into the lives of the people it would harm.. or help, depending on the situation and completely change someone’s life?

Since every situation is different, there is no one answer to the conundrum a good piece of information can bring about.

A relative of one of my neighbors recently gave birth. Within the first few days of the childs life, it stopped breathing. The child is now believed to be braindead and is currently residing in the ICU of a local hospital. From the moment the child lost his first breath there were a plethora of stories circulating about the mother. Drugs were found in the infants system and suddenly everyone and their brother had their own version of gossip to add to the pot. It’s all very upsetting and one of the questions that keeps coming up revolves around the sharing of all this gossip that was apparently kept quiet when it should have been shouted from rooftops! Because for all the good sharing did after the fact, the child is going to leave this world. And soon. But who should have told? Which piece of information could have saved this life? And what of the rest of the family? Hearts are broken, families are broken. The mother was whisked away into a rehab program, to save face. Her other child taken from her and placed in foster care. The father is left crying daily at the hospital to watch his child die. And who is to blame? The mother, who clearly had an uncontrollable issue OR the people around her that just sat by and watched? Or are they all to blame? Sadly, blame wont reverse anything here.

In the town that I live, there is a well known story of adultery circulating everyone’s ears. A woman accused of running around with a much younger man while her hardworking perfect specimen of a husband is none the wiser. But then he finds out. Without a word, without even the slightest confrontation at all, he up and leaves her. No questions asked. Gone. Now it’s being said that there was no adultery. Twas all gossip.

Double edged sword that there gossip.

It is very hard indeed to decipher what to tell and what to sit on. Even trying to place yourself in someone else’s shoes will not always give you the answer you need. Then you must also trust your source. Who’s to say the gossip train didn’t take a few turns before it fell on your door? 

And that is exactly what I’d like to know.