Day 71 of rain. I’m not sure I’m going to keep count. It might just be too desperate. But yes rain, wind and low clouds. A young man we know ran his boat aground out on Vitskari Rocks over the weekend, it was reported that he had five hundred gallons of fuel on board. The Coast Guard plucked him off the rocks next to his boat. two day laters after trying to salvage the boat his fishing boat burned. It’s a sad affair all around, but it is a good thing there were no fatalities. The gossip that accompanies an event like this in a little fishing town hangs in the air like smoke and can sour the mood as much as the rain. Today I saw a fisherman blowing a gasket at the post office because there was some mix up in getting a package delivered. It didn’t get violent… not at all… but it was easy to imagine that violence was just around the corner from the yelling and the complaints. Gossip, in a stormy season, when people are drinking, when people may be short of money…. gossip can be a poison. This is when we should have faith in our fact finding institutions.
Each time something bad happens and when an innocent person is touched by gossip as I’m sure that this young skipper will be touched, everyone swears they will learn from this and hold their tongues the next time. Never will I repeat something I don’t know for a fact, never will I give the suggestion that anyone did anything wrong. But of course we do. Even just bringing it up as I have casts suspicion of wrong doing. When, let me be clear, I know nothing of the events that caused that boat to go aground and burn other than what I’ve already said. I know nothing and I honestly suspect nothing, other than a good boat was lost and a young man lost his livelihood, and a very rich fishing ground had some gas and oil spread over it.
But still we talk and gossip. Just as we like to watch and read true crime stories. Gossip operates as the most immediate type of folklore that is still open to us. Stories. Stories we tell and ask to be told…. and this is what gossip is… a form of social storytelling…. stories perform unique services for a town, and for a culture of that town. Stories help teach lessons. Stories define our values. Stories help map our territory, our range or habitat. Stories define who is “us” and who is “them.” and lastly stories grant wishes.
From gossip to the Scriptures, from Moby Dick, and Gone With The Wind, to The Maltese Falcon or Blade Runner. Stories Define us. If we have any insight into ourselves at all, as human beings, as people who go to war, or make peace, if we know anything about ourselves it’s because of the stories we have read and been taught.
But there is more than that. We must have two types of intelligence regarding our appreciation of these stories. For just hearing a story does not make it important. We need to assess the accuracy and the wisdom of the stories we are given. Accuracy is judged by intelligence that looks for consistency for logic tells us that a thing cannot be both true and untrue at the same time. To find truth we look for the lack of contradiction. Similarly with wisdom we look for intuitive feelings that process right and wrong in complex matters, and again we must try to follow consistency, historical accuracy, and avoid the narcissistic bending of the mind to make something true just because we want it to be true.
I don’t mean to make this complicated. It’s just that we will all listen to gossip. Gossip is the rough, rough draft of history, it will change and it reflects the attitudes of the people passing it along. As a private investigator I always listened to gossip. It told me what our jury would probably come to court with. But also gossip gives you a basic map of a communities, values and prejudices.
Also we must pay attention to gossip because most of our political rhetoric now is based on a kind of gossipy kind of information gathering, similar to talking over the back fence. “Oh you know Mr. Soandso, well I heard he sleeps around and his wife is a slut.” No evidence, none needed, the real reason for the statement is to make sure that both you and the person you are speaking to are A) opposed to Mr. Soandso’s values, and B) both feel on the same side of this question. “We are so virtuous, not like HIM.” That’s the most important purpose of gossip, to define the “us” and “them” group.
When looking for the “Truth” I had to test it against the best evidence, measured by the best sources, with the best equipment in the best circumstances to get a good clear answer. Unless you could get a good clear answer the solution had to remain in the “unknown” column. I was well known for not knowing answers when people asked me about crimes I was investigating. We often can’t, or don’t do this with gossip, for often gossip is only about the folklore of the conversation, that is a conversation about our values or our desires.
If we are looking for wisdom from gossip or stories we are given we must be on the look out for the intentions, given by the people passing judgements along. Are they hateful, or condescending, or are the people telling the stories loving or kind…. or were they analytical or scientific trying to come to an objective truth…. or more likely acting analytical to mask their prejudice? Regardless, we often have to feel these intentions in others, and then again we hunt for consistencies.
The narcissism I discussed is called solipsism in philosophy. This is a statement often presented by someone who just asserts the truth of a lie, without bringing evidence or feeling that there is any need for evidence. A solipsistic thought or argument exists as true only in the mind of one person. “My will makes it so.” Does this sound familiar to anyone? It can be roused by anyone on any end of the political spectrum but it is the favorite of authoritarianism. See the writings of Mien Komph, or the Elders Of Zion, The assertion, given in the context of multiple of other lies makes a case for falsehoods as truths.
But what do I know really? Nothing. I just know to listen with a kind heart to any story that comes my way, and judge it for its loving nature and it’s consistency and its accuracy, and then to keep on looking and keep on listening. Also it is good to have a high tolerance for not knowing anything with much certainty.
Autumn sun setting.
A cat slinks through our garden:
dog opens one eye.
Here is a recording of the opening to A Farewell To Arms by Ernest Hemingway.
