Gossiping. How about we just don’t do that. That would be great.
This month we were asked how John was doing. And we didn’t answer that question. Because in all honesty….
- If you want to know how John is doing, ask him yourself.
- John tells us something in complete confidence. If you told us something in confidence, and we told it to someone else… what would you think about that?
- John tells us something, and it is John’s choice to say what he wants to share. Do we know John’s whole story? No. So even if John does agree that we tell you something about him, we still won’t be able to do that anyway. We know a piece of the puzzle, not the whole puzzle. Only John knows…
- Talking about that puzzle: does John actually know the whole puzzle? Usually not, that is our experience. John comes to us for therapy to untangle the puzzle together with John… so even John doesn’t even know the puzzle at the moment.
There is also another version:
Someone asked John the following question: “How are things going with M&E?”
- If you want to know, you can ask us. (full stop) Feel free! You know our telephone number, email address, you probably see us every day? Come on, feel free to ask. If we don’t want to answer, we will say so. (we’re Dutch, we will) And please… don’t bother John with questions / games / gossip like that. He has more than enough on his plate as it is already…
And there are many more reasons we don’t answer questions about John. In all honesty, we get a little tired of it sometimes. In practice, it means that we unfortunately also avoid people who we know are into gossiping. We do not cooperate in that, and we do not want to run the risk that they will provoke us into an answer. So we sometimes just avoid contact. Unfortunately.
A gossip betrays a confidence; so avoid anyone who talks too much.
Proverbs 20:19
That sometimes makes the work on this side of the globe more lonely though…
Oh, and the person who asked how John is doing? We answered it with the following verse:
A gossip betrays a confidence, but a trustworthy person keeps a secret.
Proverbs 11:13
And with that, the conversation was immediately over.
Can we just all stop gossiping? Please?
Ah, to end with a more happy note: John was not his real name, maybe John was not even a “he” and it could have been a story about a year ago anyway. Who knows? What country it was where did this happen? We do know, but we won’t tell you. 🙂 #lol
