Gossip and hand grenades are usually dropped behind a closing door.

Folks love a good rumor. I know I do. I think that gossip injects a little adrenaline into our system; it fires our imagination; it feeds our desire for vindication and allows us to dream of what could be.

“Believe none of what you hear, and half of what you see” is a quote rumored to be by Edgar Allen Poe, but I don’t know that anyone is really sure.

I wish that my stats for believing rumors were closer to ole Edgar’s, but they are not. I can quickly buy into information slung across the social rumor mill, assuming that it fits my macros of gossipy nutrients that I want to incorporate into my diet. I wish that I didn’t enjoy hearing the gossip, but I do. I say I don’t like drama, but I’m the first to stick my ear to the door.

I once spread a rumor that I guy I went to high school with was dead. A few months after telling my friend the story of our classmate’s death, I got a text message from my friend along with a screenshot that said, “You will never believe who resurrected himself from the dead and friended me on Facebook.”

It wasn’t a lie as much as it was bad information. A rumor. A mistake.

Just recently, I watched an ESPN 30for30 on Tommy “Duke” Morrison with Amanda. As I was reminiscing and waxing poetically about the mid-eighties and all vivid memories I have of it, I was just about to tell Amanda about the time I watched Mike Tyson knock out Tommy Morrison. Seconds before I went into my story, the documentary clearly told the story about how Morrison tested positive for HIV before he ever got a chance to fight Tyson.

It wasn’t going to tell a lie as much as I was about to pass along bad information. A rumor. A mistake.

I didn’t mean to start the rumor. I believed that my information was accurate, but I guess my imagination didn’t process according to my conscious. I think I just wanted to “know something”. I think it feels good to hold the information. I believe that there is a perception of value, worth, and distinction that comes along with holding information. It is like a high priced currency with an unknown exchange value.

Gossip is the Bitcoin of the drama world, where the market is the rumor mill, and the exchange rate is anybody’s guess. We don’t know what it’s worth when we have it, but we feel like it has some value.

Not all rumors are ill-intended and not all of them are meant to be gossip, but bad information is everywhere, and much of the information is just plain false. All information is a rumor until verified. If I allow any rumor to swirl around my head, I will see to it that my imagination makes the pieces fit to complete a story.

In most cases, it’s better for me just not to know.

It’s safer for me to experience the entertainment that comes with receiving the information, but dangerous for me to distribute it. There is nothing that I love more than feeling like I know something; the only problem is, I usually don’t.

Ignorance is bliss.

Peace, Love, and all things Beef related,

Beefcake