Mr. Shakespear coined this term in a colorful reference to what we commonly call “gossip”. To me it’s a much better expression, more appropriately descriptive, and up until I began writing this article; denoted the complete negativity that I was prone to feel toward “idle prattle”. However, I attempt to live my life with an open mind and now I see there are positive aspects to “scuttlebutt” that I have failed to consider.My life experiences have been such that I have had the opportunity to work in several different work places, with multiple combinations demographically: some with all men, some with all women, some of mixed sexes, some workplaces contained people from all over the world with English as their second language, some where the majority were over the age of 65, and I even taught Sunday school for several years with up to twenty 5-year-olds in a class. One common thread to every one of these environments is that the gossip lines remain open and flourish across the sexes, language barriers, ages, wealth, social classes, even up and down chains of command. Humans just can’t help themselves.
Historically, gossip has been around practically since time began and some religions even see it as “sin” or an activity that is strongly discouraged by their faith. On the other hand, gossip is used in most societies, albeit informally, to build relationships and a sense of community, to foster new ideas, to distribute news in a quick and personal manner in the absence of a formal newspaper or in the presence of one. Without gossip, there would be no Paul Bunyan, Johnny Appleseed, or Bigfoot. Imainge the colorless conversation of a completely factual world…it’s enough to change your mind on the subject.
Personally, I love a good story teller, someone who is verbally and physically animated when they speak. It’s about their uninhibited passion for the telling of a tale. In most cases, the conversations in which we participate on a daily basis are mundane and just chit chat; so what is the harm in a little exaggeration, a little narrative indulgence, a twist on the whole truth just to make it more exiting for our listeners? We all love to make people laugh or gasp with disbelief, we all love to hear ourselves speak and I think the positive or negative aspects of gossip center entirely around intent. If the intention is to slander someone, that is what will come out and it’s just plain wrong on several levels. If your pupose is to tell a story and be informative, I think your audience will be much more receptive and entertained if you stick to the truth while you are juicing it up a bit.
Think about it the next time you are enlightening a friend of a friend about your other friend: would the subject of your conversation mind hearing what you are saying? Maybe “foul whisperings” could be replaced with a more positive; “I heard it on the grapevine” if we all just took each other’s feelings into consideration while we are providing an amusing diverasion for our captive listeners.
—North Bend Eagle 11 Oct 2006