What is said at start of the game is nothing like the end!
In this game, a statement is whispered by the first person to the next, and it is important to whisper what was said to you, just loud enough, for the person next to you to hear and no one else. And the phrase goes on to each person sitting in the circle, being repeated just as it was heard. Now depending on how clear the person next to you whispers and how close you are paying attention, or how ticklish someone is, the phrase will only change a little bit by the end of the circle. But, if any link, (person) in the chain, that gets one part wrong, it compounds the mistake every time it is repeated until the end. Then when the phrase is said out loud, it was usually greeted with peals of laughter, because it was so far off, what the original statement was, at the beginning of the game. We played this game a lot in Brownies, usually to go along a lesson about the pitfalls of gossiping, and telling tales out of school.
We are now in the midst of a technological storm we call mass media, in which one of the pitfalls is false reporting. Someone may be having a bad day and say they are bummed, or innocently states the kids are driving them crazy that particular day, and the firestorm begins. Being called an unfit mother to being self-indulgent. Let’s face it there are things best left off the internet, but let me ask you this: when your friend posted they were having a bad day with her husband or kids, did you offer any support, or just criticism? Did you pick up the phone and offer to come and watch the kids so she could have a break, or so she and her husband could go carry on a conversation over a quiet meal? Is the mass media of today making more friendships, but no true friends? You know the ones you use to share confidences over a cup of coffee at the kitchen table with? That helped you get through the bad days, by making you laugh, and put things back into perspective.
True friends are like a rare and precious gem, the more it is used, the brighter it becomes. Don’t let the ease of today’s social media, make you less of a friend than you would be face to face. Pick up the phone or a pen and convey to your friend that you are there for him or her, and that they are in your prayers. Don’t help roast them until there is nothing recognizable left of the person you once called a friend.
As parents it is important to teach our children to be kind-hearted, and helpful to everyone. Ask them what they would want, if the roles were reversed, in any given situation. This is where the commandant; thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor, and the many variations, like gossiping, or spreading rumors, could be used as examples and applied.
We as writers, can annihilate a person’s creditability in our stories with a rumor or falsehood told about them. That is true also in real life, especially with the ease of access, of the social media phenomena. Let us take the high road, both in our stories and our real lives, and be true friends.
Where no wood is, there the fire goeth out: so where there is no talebearer, the strife ceaseth.
Proverbs 26:20
Whoso privily slandereth his neighbour, him will I cut off: him that hath an high look and a proud heart will not I suffer.
Psalms 101:5
He that goeth about as a talebearer revealeth secrets: therefore meddle not with him that flattereth with his lips.
Proverbs 20:19
The words of a talebearer are as wounds, and they go down into the innermost parts of the belly.
Proverbs 18:8
And withal they learn to be idle, wandering about from house to house; and not only idle, but tattlers also and busybodies, speaking things which they ought not.
I Timothy 5:13