Comprehension, or the lack of it.

Have you ever noticed how everybody has a different way of interpreting things? A number of people at a morning class I attend received the same email from the teacher regarding the state of her health and describing the treatment she was undergoing.

I understood that she had to take some powerful antibiotics for a lung infection that she would have preferred not to take, and was to stay in bed for a week.

Another person told me in great distress that our poor teacher had emailed her to say she was seriously ill and was having something similar to chemotherapy and didn't know when we would see her again. I said she must have got a different email to me and went off to ask another member what he had heard. His take was entirely different, as he understood she would be back soon and was well on the way to recovery.

This shows how easily rumours spread and stories become distorted by each telling. The danger is that, if you repeat it, you could be party to passing on a falsehood which will be damaging to someone's reputation and yours. Once you become known for always getting it wrong, not only will your audience diminish, but you will find conversations tailing off in your presence. By all means, listen to what people want to tell you if you have the time and inclination, but digest it, form your own opinion and then keep it to yourself. That way they will have got the gossip off their chest, and you will have stopped it in its tracks.

Here endeth the lesson...