It’s Not the Gossip, It’s the Gossiper

The one who gossips with you will always gossip about you. We have heard this countless times, and yet we never heed it. We are always eager to catch the latest gossip. More often than not, we befriend the very people who indulge in idle gossip. We never stop them. Nor do we stop ourselves. Because intuitively, we know the saying isn't an absolute truth. Your heart knows its claim doesn't hold in every case. But it isn't an outright lie either. That is what a good saying does. It distills wisdom into an aphorism you can remember. Unfortunately, we treat it as an absolute and apply it to everyone. Naturally, it fails, and then we wonder why aphorisms are so overrated. The saying obviously doesn't hold in every case. If it were true that the one who gossips with you will always gossip about you, there would be no relationships in this world at all. Nobody would trust anyone with a secret. Yet countless people carry other people's secrets in their hearts. No matter how drunk you get…