In Praise of "Loving" Gossip....

I was getting prepared to do my “lights duty” for Rocky Horror and felt delighted to be there, providing support, collaborating in what has been a very successful project for Bakersfield Community Theatre.

I saw Megan getting putting her make-up on and decided to spend a few moments bonding with her, figuring it would be beneficial for our “Talents” connection.

I started our conversation with these words, “I had breakfast with someone who adores you!”

She stopped putting sparkling eye shadow and her eyes widened as they filled with incredulity.

“You did?” I nodded, smiling.  “Who was it?”

“

Sheila McClure

!”

Her response surprised me, “I thought she was mad at me.”

I did know, from my conversation with Sheila, that Megan had been a student at

West

High School

when Sheila was a teacher there.  I didn’t know what Megan was referring to, though.

“She didn’t mention that at all – but I can tell you she adores you.”

How often do we greet people like this? Sharing appreciation we hear about them from others?

Later that night I was standing outside a nightclub talking to a group of people I didn’t know very well.  Dan introduced me to a woman whose name I am embarrassed to report that I don’t remember.

I do remember, however, what she said. “Julie! So this is you! I keep hearing about you from everyone, ‘Julie this’ and ‘Julie that’.”

I sat in the surreal texture of the moment. “Well…. Here I am….”

A part of me thought, “A big ol’ disappointment, eh?” before I smiled at myself and realized this conversation might just be part of the echo of my earlier words with Megan,

a sort of “positive talk aftershock.”

One of my secrets in life is to not spread hurtful information from one person to another.  I remember talking to Brian backstage at “It Runs in the Family.”  I told him, “There is someone in the audience… who has said bad stuff about me… and I am trying to not let her presence bother me… but it does…”

Brian said, “Who?”

And I said, “I am sorry, I don’t want to add to the negatives that she has said about me… I am just going to focus on accepting her and being kind to her and not worrying about what she has said, or thought, or done negatively towards me.”

What would happen if all the gossip we spread was expansive, positive, “Yes” oriented gossip?

More echoes, more “aftershocks”, more expansiveness in our hearts.

Megan and I also spoke about the thinkers, philosophers, poets and others who inspire and fill our hearts. We both share a deep admiration of Kahlil Gibran who wrote,

“Love has no other desire but to fulfill itself. But if you love and must have desires, let these be your desires:

To melt and be like a running brook that sings its melody to the night….

To wake at dawn with a winged heart and give thanks for another day of loving….

To rest at the noon hour and meditate love’s ecstasy…

To return home at eventide with gratitude…..

And then to sleep with a prayer for the beloved in your heart and a song of praise upon your lips…."

From... The Prophet, by Kahlil Gibran