Every day it becomes more and more apparent to me that most people are more excited about finding out what happens in the lives of other people than they are about making things happen in their own lives. Or maybe the word isn't "excited," maybe the word I'm looking for is "capable." People are certainly more capable of being nosy than they are of being productive. I think gossip makes me loathe people more than violence does. Not because it makes me angry that people talk about trivialities in other people's lives, but because it further solidifies my lack of faith in the intellect of the general population. I occasionally come to a point where I can look around and start to actually like a good portion of the population around me. Sometimes this feeling can even last more than a day or two. Reality eventually creeps back to the forefront, though.
I say that gossip kills my faith in people. It's not that there is any reason to believe that people won't jabber about any "secret" they get their hands on; that is to be expected. What kills me is that so many people LIVE to find out as many dirty little things as they can about as many people as they can. It makes me realize how simple most minds really are. It almost makes me want to stop using punctuation in this blog. Maybe I can broaden my audience if I dumb things down a bit. Maybe I'll even just start posting vague and frustrated status updates instead. Don't worry, they'd be about someone you know. That's what's interesting, right?
It's my belief that every person needs to have a thing in his or her life that trumps everything and everyone else. That thing could be art, music, athletics, blowing fucking nose-bubbles in the mirror; anything. The minute you can stop and realize that you are more interested in gossip than you are in your thing, it's time to re-evaluate your perception of what is important to you. You are wasting a lot of time while other people do things.
Jesus, this whole post is starting to sound like one big angsty status update. I'm gonna slow down before I start to derail.
Please, all of you, make sure that you have something in your life that is important to you. I'm not talking about boyfriends and girlfriends either; those should take second place at best. The only thing that could possibly trump your thing would be your child. I'm talking about something that is just for you. Get good at something and you will care a lot less about what other people are doing, I promise. It seems like most people with real talent, hobbies, or children seem not to give much of a shit for gossip, although there are obviously exceptions to every rule. I think that you can often tell whether or not an individual has interests of any substance by observing how interested he or she is in other people.
Get a life if you don't have one, folks (and I mean that in the most constructive and nicest way possible); if not for your own sake, then for the sake of our collective intelligence.
