Gossip is an ugly thing.

It’s often excused and justified by the perpetrator as “just saying what I heard” as if defining Gossip without using the word “gossip” somehow excuses the action. Just saying what you heard is gossip! That’s the problem!

If you hear something about someone else you need to determine if it is worth repeating, and if it is then the only person to repeat it to is the person that is being gossiped about! The moment you take that info and tell it to someone else YOU become a gossiper, perpetuating the sin.

Now, in this scenario, you didn’t start the gossip. Someone else said it to you first. And that’s usually how these things go; someone told them and they told you, and now you’re tempted to tell someone else. Chasing the origin of gossip is like chasing a bizarro rainbow, where instead of a pot of gold at the end, it’s a bucket of slop. It’s almost impossible to find the source of the gossip. You can’t stop gossip; by its nature it’s already been told to you by the time you realize what you were told was gossip.

You can’t stop gossip, but you can stop yourself. You can stop it from spreading.

food for thought.