Lies, rumors, and gossip: if you don't have anything nice to say...

It should be no surprise to anyone that I can't stand liars (especially if you had the great privilege of meeting my first husband). It's a concept that I just cannot wrap my mind around, I can't understand why people tell lies to people they love or, even worse, about other people. This has been a pretty distressing topic for me lately as my sister and my moopit have been the victims of this disgusting practice. I'm not going to go into the details or repeat the filth that has been said about two of the people that mean the most to me but let's just say that they're the kind of lies that could do permanent damage to a person's reputation and self-image. With moopit it's been worse because it has caused several rifts among the people I consider to be my friends. The gossip mill has been strong with this one and, while a few friends recognized something fishy, several people believed the lies without ever checking in for another perspective or side of the story. It's caused a lot of stress to the people I care about and makes me really want to bow out of the group involved entirely. So here's my friendly little reminder, dearest readers, if you don't have anything nice to say, just keep your mouth shut. There is never a good reason to spread lies about another human being and, if you hear something particularly terrible about someone else, maybe you should double check all of your facts before spreading it around and ostracizing that person. Let's try and spread a little love for a change, the world has enough problems.