"Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people."
-Eleanor Roosevelt (Brainy Quotes)
I heard a talk about gossip this week, so I thought this would be a good thought to begin with today. Someone said that about 10% of gossip is true and the rest is rubbish, so I don't think it's worth our while to engage in it. Let this be a reminder to all of us that words can do great harm to others. I do enjoy discussing ideas, history, and current events, but I'm not sure that I qualify to be one of the "great minds" that Eleanor Roosevelt is talking about. I'm always looking for friends who are smarter than me in the hopes that their creativity and knowledge will rub off on me. So, my friends, those of you who know you are my friends, hats off to you because you are most likely smarter and much more interesting than I am. So we can all laugh a little here.
I finished reading People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks this week. The ending was not a disappointment with its quick turn of events, and I enjoyed this novel. It's about a book conservator who helps to save an ancient Hebrew text. When I filed away my card for this book in my two volumes of card catalogs (books that I've read since 1984), I realized that I've read another book by Brooks, Year of Wisdom. I read this book in 2003, so I don't remember it but I'm sure it was enjoyable.
This weekend I'll start reading a nonfiction book by David McCullough, The Great Bridge: The Epic Story of the Building of the Brooklyn Bridge. I've been wanting to read this book for a very long time, and I thought I had put it on hold at the library, but when I checked on my online account this week I saw that I had actually never requested the book. Lucky for me I was able to get it in 24 hours and so I'm all set. I've never been disappointed with McCullough's books and since I enjoy history so much, I've read three other books by him. I've read his books about Americans in Paris, John Adams, and most recently, the Wright Brothers. I really enjoyed all of these and, of course, I learned a lot. Sometimes I wonder where my mind was when I was coming up through public school because I didn't learn a lot about history. I guess I'm making up for lost time during my mid-life.
As a history buff, I enjoy going to historical places such as old forts, houses of important historical figures, museums, and memorials. I sometimes even find myself liking old things, as is evident when I watch "Antiques Roadshow." The only reason that I like that show is because I am interested in the stories behind the objects. It intrigues me to realize that something has been around for so many years and somehow has survived the hands of human beings from generation to generation. Although I don't collect antiques, I do enjoy the stories behind them when these stories can be verified. Nevertheless, I do love history. My children used to complain that I was always dragging them to historical places instead of letting them have a FUN vacation! I remember when we visited
Mt. Vernon a few years ago and I was having the time of my life, they just complained about being hot and tired. Can you imagine?? I was so thrilled to be there that it didn't matter to me how I felt. We have taken our kids to Arizona and the Grand Canyon, New Mexico, the Washington D.C. area, the Philadelphia Zoo, Mammoth Cave, Niagara Falls, the birthplace of Abraham Lincoln, and more. I loved every minute of it, and for the most part, they enjoyed it too. Our youngest was only four years old when we went to Mammoth Cave, but she was a real trooper as we walked in the cool, damp cave for two hours or so. Talk about a place that is very old!!
Mt. Vernon a few years ago and I was having the time of my life, they just complained about being hot and tired. Can you imagine?? I was so thrilled to be there that it didn't matter to me how I felt. We have taken our kids to Arizona and the Grand Canyon, New Mexico, the Washington D.C. area, the Philadelphia Zoo, Mammoth Cave, Niagara Falls, the birthplace of Abraham Lincoln, and more. I loved every minute of it, and for the most part, they enjoyed it too. Our youngest was only four years old when we went to Mammoth Cave, but she was a real trooper as we walked in the cool, damp cave for two hours or so. Talk about a place that is very old!!
I can't wait to get started on McCullough's book about the Brooklyn Bridge, so stay tuned for some tidbits about a very well-known landmark in America. Have a great weekend.
-Melissa Hill
Book Blogger
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ReplyDeleteHere was a surprising quote about gossip I read in Harari's Sapiens:
"The amount of information that one must obtain and store in order to track the ever-changing relationships of even a few dozen individuals is staggering. (In a band of fifty individuals, there are 1,225 one-on-one relationships, and countless more complex social combinations.) All apes show a keen interest in such social information, but they have trouble gossiping effectively. Neanderthals and archaic Homo sapiens probably also had a hard time talking behind each other’s backs – a much maligned ability which is in fact essential for cooperation in large numbers. The new linguistic skills that modern Sapiens acquired about seventy millennia ago enabled them to gossip for hours on end. Reliable information about who could be trusted meant that small bands could expand into larger bands, and Sapiens could develop tighter and more sophisticated types of cooperation.
"The gossip theory might sound like a joke, but numerous studies support it. Even today the vast majority of human communication – whether in the form of emails, phone calls or newspaper columns – is gossip. It comes so naturally to us that it seems as if our language evolved for this very purpose. Do you think that history professors chat about the reasons for World War One when they meet for lunch, or that nuclear physicists spend their coffee breaks at scientific conferences talking about quarks? Sometimes. But more often, they gossip about the professor who caught her husband cheating, or the quarrel between the head of the department and the dean, or the rumours that a colleague used his research funds to buy a Lexus. Gossip usually focuses on wrongdoings. Rumour-mongers are the original fourth estate, journalists who inform society about and thus protect it from cheats and freeloaders."
That said, I tend to agree with you, though, Melissa. Most gossip seems to be primarily speculation, and ungenerous speculation at that.
Thanks for your comments, Rod. I would much rather speak with my co-workers about things that matter when we "do life" than to spend time talking about stressful things such as impending deadlines or extra work that was suddenly put on us. Yet some of our talk is pure foolishness.
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