Gossip

It’s 4:05 here in Dallas. This is a city of big hair, big heels, and big diamonds. It’s also a city of big talkers.

Gossip is a sport here and one’s prowess is currency in social settings. In fact, it is not uncommon for the response to “I am from Dallas” to be “that’s where people stab you in the back.” (Side note: Native Dallasites don’t care if you stab us in the back because our scar tissue was fully formed by age 10. We can’t feel a thing.)

I don’t like that reputation, but I’ll tell you…even in 2016? Just like the Cowboys, the Dallas theme song, and that stupid stereotype that everyone rides around on a horse, this city’s fixation on gossip is not going anywhere.

Because Dallas loves it sports and gossip is truly a pastime here. How much do I know? How much can I insinuate? Who will come with me on this gossip train? Hey, is it possible for us to take this grain of truth and turn it into a loaf of bread? Could I actually destroy another person’s life with it?

Gossip is not new to my family. Oddly enough, we seem destined to be the foder of gossip for reasons that continue to baffle me because I find us all to be fairly decent individuals.

I know I knew I wanted a different life. One led by the wisdom from the sages…do my words pass easily through the three gates? Are the kind? Are they true? Are the necessary?

I got away from this city’s “big” to find mountains that don’t gossip and lakes that don’t plunge knives in my back…or heart. I cannot imagine a better decision as I sit awake at 4:33 pondering “why?”

As a child, gossip made me angry. As an adult, I find it pathetic. Gossip is the mark of people too bored, unhappy, or insecure to make their own lives shine.

Me? I’m not interested in football or Dallas’ other favorite sport.