Rumours and gossip

What is it that makes nasty people nasty? Some of them spread gossip with the intent of causing trouble. I just don't get it.

 

A couple of nights ago, a man who was raising money for breast cancer research swam in the dark, overnight, from Rottnest to Perth. Some particularly nasty male (Doug) loves to spread viscious rumours and this one had me going on the escort boat. Then he raised the question of why was I sticking my nose into it. He has made a fool of himself before with the nasty things that he says and he did it again this time! He got the wrong Shelley. It was Shelley Taylor-Smith who was accompanying the swimmer, not me.

 

If he had stopped to think he would have realised that on the committee of the Rottnest Channel Swim Association I would be one of the ones who thought this guy was a maniac (I am scared of sharks, so why would you put yourself at risk by swimming in the dark) and that the Association should have nothing to do with it. Anyway, he never lets the truth get in the way of a good story.

 

Photo by sindorella

 

He must think of ways to discredit me all the time as this is just one in a long line of things he has done. He makes me think of the line by Wil Wheaton in the 'Big Bang Theory' where he says that he has rented space in Sheldon's head, for free! Sheldon spends his life worrying about Wil Wheaton and that just suits Wil Wheaton fine. If Doug spends his life thinking of ways to discredit me, it means that he is angry  with me a lot of the time. Actually, he is just an angry person, so if I get to him by just being me, I have rented space in his head for free, just like Wil Wheaton! What a waste of energy.

What is it that motivates people like this? Are they trying to make the other person look bad? Mostly, I think that they make themselves look bad.

 

 

Friends - how we keep them, how we value them

I had some friends around for dinner last night. Can you believe that three of them were named Kim? Two boy Kims and one girl Kim. I met all of these people, except one, when I was about 17 or 18. At 50 something, that means we have been friends for almost 40 years!
Amazing!

As we were having a good time last night I began wondering what it is that that made us stay friends for all these years. Of course, we had wandered in and out of each others' lives, but always maintained a sense of what the others were doing.

At the end of the Kakeroma, Japan, 16km swim



I wonder if it is because you have similar interests, or maybe just enjoy doing things together. In the photo above we had just finished a 16km swim. I did it as a duo with the lady on the left. She lives in Japan and I live in Western Australia and even though we only see each other every couple of years, if we're lucky, I just know that we will always be friends. I think it's not only that we share interests, but also because we just clicked straight away and enjoy each others' company.

I don't think 'just clicking' with my friends from the dinner party is why we are still friends, but maybe we did a lot of things as a group in our teens and twenties and then as people had kids, we still maintained our friendship by phone calls, coffee and going out together. I don't know, but it's very satisfying to have such long term friends.

That just reminded me of a book that I have just finished reading called "When God Was a Rabbit". It was about a girl, her brother and their friend and all the people in their lives as they were growing up. It examined what different kinds of friendship could be like. I couldn't put it down.