misunderestimated

its not really a word, but if a former us president used it, then it must be worth using. who says republicans are dummies? oh wait i did. anyhoo..

the thing about gossip is that its so fulfilling to produce and even more titillating to consume, creating an inherently self-sustaining, all-devouring snake weve all come to love being coiled around and squeezed by. i dont mean to describe it like a terrible monster, in fact, its more like a sesame street serpent which is striped in 65536 colours, and honestly, who doesnt love rainbows?

this beautiful stomach-walker, as it seems, grows more convoluted with the increasing number of hands that feed it, and erupts in evergrowing vibrance of color with the increasing number of fingers that stroke it. to paraquote a friend, "people add a little something of their own when they tell a story, and people add a little something of their own whilst they are listening to one." you start with a harmless little annelid, and you end up with something like this.

sometimes people arent prepared for a creature like that; it really scares the shit out of them, especially when it comes around the corner and bites them in the cheeks (the bigger cheeks). and relationships are disrupted all the time because of it; because someone or somemany recklessly fed a harmless little worm and somebody got a hurt real bad (ty russell peters) by the huge snake that grew from it. i guess im just lucky that im quite immune to snake venom, albeit only coincidentally, because i dont live upon the status of my reputation with society. today a snake bit me, and as usual i was all "meh.., whatever" but it was the second or third bite already, and it was the same snake! at that point i thought "should i just kill it now?" and then i thought "you know what, i was responsible for showing the worm to people in the first place, so i cant be going around killing them just because it grew into something troublesome".

after all, gossip is a prism that switches white light into a myriad of hued rays that although point in all the wrong directions, still produces light; though they are heavily coloured, some of those rays are pointing in the right ones.

all said and done, it is important to note that everyone has their personal can of worms, and the important lesson i learnt is to keep it open and learn to deal with the venom after the released ones have passed through the prism of gossip; rather than to keep the lid on your can of worms tightly sealed, or worse, then proceed to hide it in a safe dark place. of course you can still do this, likely only to chance upon a wild snake that grew from a worm that someone else fraudulently planted at your feet because gossippers couldnt get to the real worms that you hid so well. then you die from that wild snake's bite because the poison from such--almost no one is immune to. and it takes one hell of a fight to bring such a snake down--and if it goes down, it takes your relationships down with it, not by mere disruption, but by absolute implosion. so unless you enjoy picking up pieces and rebuilding stuff that shouldnt break, keep it open and learn to deal, or if youre one of those mega-rare saint types in potentia, stop populating your can.