We can’t be too certain, but it may be a fair assumption to say that it’s really a small-town thing.

When we’ve explored a little bit and truly see what an enormous bustling city is and what it isn’t, there really is nothing quite like the peaceful simplicity of a small town.

Sure, when we are younger and want nothing more than to see what the entire world has to offer, we always envision ourselves surviving and thriving in an exciting city.

With empowering skyscrapers, zillions of people moving around and anything you could want or taste at every street corner, it would reasonably seem like this is indeed a dream of living this thing called life.

That being said, life is going to be life wherever we choose to live. Sure, the excitement of the city life is awesome at first. However, it doesn’t take long to realize that bills are going to come in, we still have to heckle with insurance companies over the phone and going to get milk may take several hours if we get stuck in traffic.

This truly is where living the life of a small-town “hick” isn’t so bad. If we are kind, courteous and carry ourselves with dignity and respect everything seems to really take care of itself, doesn’t it?

Sure, there’s not too much “excitement” if you will, but there’s that wonderful little thing called peace that we have every, single day. And mark these words, not too many people in the world have what we have in that department.

If we need to go get groceries, all we have to do is hop in the truck for about two minutes depending on where we are and zing, we can have our milk ready and waiting in the fridge in a flash.

Getting stuck in traffic for hours on end, violent crime and casual rudeness really aren’t the norm in a small town. It’s something to really breathe in and appreciate when we once again look at everything from the bigger picture.

But as always, nobody is perfect, and we all make mistakes. This will certainly be the truth until the end of time. Once again life is going to be life wherever we are.

This is when one little, or even big drawback comes with living in a quiet, peaceful little town.

That drawback is definitely something called gossip, and it’s unquestionably worth talking about for a minute and examining the very elusive damage it causes.

Absolutely one of the best ways to envision this, is by thinking of gossip like a pillow filled with feathers.

Corny and cheesy yes but stay with us for a minute on this.

Imagine for a moment simply taking a pillow, and tearing it open just a tiny bit.

That’s all it takes is one little slit.

Then take a feather, and let it escape into the wind. When you see it disappear from your view, take an entire handful of feathers and throw them out into the wind. Once again, watch all of them blow clear away until you can no longer see them.

Finally, vigorously shake all the feathers out of the pillow and watch them blow away and disappear entirely. At this point you should be left with nothing but an empty pillow, as all of the feathers should be entirely gone at this point.

Now for the real challenge. You must now attempt to find and retrieve every single feather you released from that pillow. 

Of course, we know deep down that no matter how long or how hard we look, there is absolutely no way we can ever get back every feather that we set free into the blowing wind. Not a chance.

This is the pure personification of what gossip does in a small town.

Everyone, yes, knows each other very well. When it comes to gossip, that can actually be a bad thing because we are so quick to believe a rumor about someone when we first hear it. It’s in our nature to want to believe a good juicy story whether it happens to be true or not.

The worst part is the more a lie is repeated, the more and more people assume it to be true.

This is when the pillow experiment now comes into play, because by the time a rumor gets carried away like that it’s too late to reverse it.

This is how a person’s life can be severely damaged over something that was blown way out of proportion, taken clean out of context or was just flat out not even true in the first place. And that damage can be irreversible just like the pillow. Sometimes we here in a small town choose to take part in such things without giving much thought as to the unnecessary detriment it could cause one of our own community members.

It would be an incredibly wise to consider when we first hear a story, and ask ourselves these simple questions. Is it true? Is it fair? Is it necessary? Is there anything to be gained by repeating it?

If the answer is no to any of those questions, chances are it’s mindless street talk that should be brought to a halt and doesn’t need to be repeated.

Always remember, healthy relationships and communities are built by working together and by communicating. Gossip is not communication and has the exact opposite effect.

Those two words are certainly similar for a reason aren’t they? Communication=community.

If we feel that there is something we should talk to someone about, by all means feel free to go talk to them. This doesn’t mean storm into their office ready to fight, chew them out viciously over the phone, or sending long nasty emails. Once again all of that ties directly into gossip, and does absolutely nothing to build a relationship or solve a problem. In all actuality it’s how cruel and untrue rumors get started in the first place.

Once again, a little communication, a little patience and a little understanding goes an incredibly long way.

Just like Grandma use to say, “Cut the gossip!”