Gossip is like chewing on soggy used toilet paper.

Grand Canyon restroom toilet.

It was an icy, rainy day at the Grand Canyon last Fall, while we were still living in Phoenix. Too cold to enjoy ice cream, too foggy to see the Canyon very well. We mostly just hopped from one beautiful lodge to the next, venturing to the edge of the canyon for a few photos between downpours. That weekend trip became expensive thanks to the hours our kids spent in the gift shops during the storm.

     As we drove home later I asked what the kids would remember most. They unanimously shouted that they would remember the undrinkable toilet in one of the lodges. Not the rain, or the glorious natural wonder of the Canyon. The thing that hit them the most was the silly toilet with a sign warning people not to drink the water.

     That toilet taught me a life lesson. Isn't it obvious that, reclaimed or not, one should NEVER under ANY circumstances attempt to drink? Who would be clueless enough to even try? Why the sign?! The kids and I had giggled in the stall just imagining that some park ranger had at some distant time caught a tourist, maybe armed with a long Slurpee straw or something, sipping from the pot. 

     I think gossip and unkind words are just like that Grand Canyon toilet. We all know that voicing negative opinions about our fellow humans is as dirty as chewing on soggy used toilet paper. It feels dirty and gross. But too many of us do it anyway. My mom used to recite a poem that I think she made up when I was a teenager. It goes like this:

"What a little thing the tongue is,

But what damage it can do,

By whispering little secrets

And things that are untrue."

We shouldn't need a warning about tearing others down any more than a public toilet in a restroom that sees 2 million tourists a year needs a "DO NOT DRINK" sign. But sometimes it's nice to have a reminder. Be kind, with your heart, hands, and tongues:-P

The rain broke just long enough to catch a double rainbow.

Brody and Chloe love each other.

A Plea For Tolerance

If we but knew what forces helped to mold

The lives of others from their earliest years—

Knew something of their background, joys and tears,

And whether or not their youth was dear and cold,

Or if some dark belief had taken hold

And kept them shackled, torn with doubts and fears

So long it crushed the force that preserves

And made their hearts grow prematurely old,—

Then we might judge with wiser, kindlier sight,

And learn to put aside our pride and scorn. . .

Perhaps no one can ever quite undo

His faults or wholly banish some past blight—

The tolerant mind is purified, reborn,

And lifted upward to a saner view.

Author unknown