Advice columnist Ann Landers has posted this anonymous poem about gossip:
My name is Gossip.
I have no respect for justice.
I maim without killing.
I break hearts and ruin lives.
I am cunning and malicious and gather strength with age.
The more I am quoted, the more I am believed.
I flourish at every level of society.
My victims are helpless.
They cannot protect themselves against me because I have no name and no face.
To track me down is impossible.
The harder you try, the more elusive I become.
I am nobody’s friend.
Once I tarnish a reputation, it is never the same.
I topple governments and wreck marriages.
I make innocent people cry in their pillows.
My name is Gossip.
(Ann Landers, Washington Post, October 23, 1999,https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1999/10/23/ann- landers/ed365274-78f5-47f7-a1ad-9667d7aee54e/). This piece is a sobering reminder that we will one day give account for our words (Matthew 12:36).
