Gossip

[lillibet]

Now, gossip, by its very definition, is trivial; on the other hand, is there a better way to really understand something than by appreciating all of its various trivialities? We don't cherish our friends simply because they're great thinkers, or saintly, or for any such lofty concerns. Rather it's a combination of all the small, trivial facets that combine to shape the image we carry of them; it's the complex final pattern, with all its daily shifts and adjustments, that we cherish.

Charles de Lint, The Wild Wood

Comments

[muffyjo]

There was an article on Science Friday on NPR that talked about our genetic history and how primates can only groom so many of their tribe mates (which seems to be one of the main tasks of bonding and establishing order) and how our genetic ancestors may have out survived our nearby relatives (neadrathal and homo erectus) by our ability to talk and communicate.

The theory was much along the lines letting conversations become our grooming patterns. We could Converse with more than one person at a time. This evolved, in my conversations with Mom et all this weekend, into a conversation of how gossip plays into the whole grooming patterns.