The Rumor Mill

 

 

“So, I hear you’re leaving us,” the older man told me. 

“Really?”  I said, surprised.  “Who told you?”

“Oh, it’s all around our church,” he said breezily.  “I saw you over at Food Lion this week and thought about saying something over there, but I knew I had an appointment today and so I didn’t bother you.”

I could just picture the folks at a little Baptist Church talking about the high school foot ball team’s woes, the best places to get a knee replacement, and Dr. Waldron’s imminent departure. 

“Honestly,” I told him.  “This is the first I’ve heard of it.  I’m not planning on leaving.”

My patient seemed to relax a little.  “That’s wonderful news,” he said.  “It sure is crazy how rumors fly around a small town.”

Ain’t it the truth…

Of course, it isn’t just small towns.  In 1897, Mark Twain was reported by multiple newspapers to be dying or perhaps even dead in London. 

Finally, one periodical, The New York Journal, decided to contact the author (a difficult thing to do if he had actually been deceased).  In response, Twain famously wrote back, “The report of my death was an exaggeration.”

“The words of a gossip are like choice morsels; they go down to the inmost parts.” (Proverbs 18:8)

Gossip may start innocently enough with someone sharing a concern or a poorly heard story about someone – a friend, a cousin, even a small-town doctor.  As that story is shared between individuals, gentle embellishment and poorly functional hearing aids combine to morph it into something that scarcely resembles the truth.

On the other hand, the point of gossip is not to share truth, but rather to deliver a tasty morsel to someone else which can then be passed on down the line. 

This particular story wasn’t particular harmful.  It may have scared some patients (and relieved others), but eventually they will all find out that it isn’t true and that will be that.  There are times when someone’s reputation may be harmed or friendships damaged as the result of these delectable bits of gossip.

The solution is simply to go the individual whose story is being told and ask them what the truth is, rather than pass it on to the others in a community.

There is little that stops a story in its tracks quicker than when you talk to your doctor and find that the new of his departure was greatly exaggerated.