Ignorance is bliss. My mom used to say that all the time. I had no idea how right she was when I took this picture. I was 17 and a Junior in High School. What did I know? Well, I thought I knew a lot! Funny how you look back on pictures, events, experiences, adventures and you realize the truth you thought you knew was a lie. I bet I don't go a week without saying that phrase. I wonder if she even realized what she was saying all those years ago. Truth be told, she was so young then. She was only 38 when I was 17, I am just shy of 10 years older than that and I have only just realized in the last several years what a blessing ignorance is.
Like so many other women I know I was always anxious to know the "scoop". It's not really that I couldn't wait to tell the world and be the first one to do it as much as I just hated being "out of the loop". The more I knew about stuff in the family, at church, in the neighborhood, etc. the more I found myself stewing. I couldn't let it go. I thought about what I knew day and night and it was especially bad when I couldn't unload this information on anyone. Thankfully, my husband made it clear that I wouldn't be hearing any scoop from him. Not only was it illegal and unethical to share it with me but if he told me he'd have to shoot me... (not really, well, maybe...).
What made me realize the blessing in ignorance was an event at church in which I honestly stumbled upon some information and shared it with ONE friend. Before I knew it, that one friend shared it with someone else who had an ego problem and was livid I knew something he didn't. Keep in mind, I found this out very innocently and shared it innocently... I ended up caught up in an egotistical drama that had me feeling as though I was being scolded like a school kid. I think that was the turning point for me. I decided that I liked the idea of shrugging my shoulders much more than finding myself in the wrong place at the wrong time.
That was over a year ago and I am a happier person because of it. I try to stay away from information that is not necessary to my life and the life of my family. I try to stay away from the people that insist upon gossiping, spreading rumors, and being the first to tell the world anything. And when I find myself there I just try to keep my mouth shut and find a happy place in my mind to fly off to.
To say it's not hard would be a lie. We all have this desire to know stuff. At least women do. I do love to have the scoop and I do love to be the one to "correct" the wrong story because I know the right one. But nothing good comes from it... nothing. I remember when we found out we were moving back here from West Virginia. I was so excited, I wanted everyone to know. That wasn't hard because I knew the 2 women to tell that would most quickly spread the word. It took 15 minutes from my email to them for me to start getting phone calls. Granted, I was thrilled people were happy about us returning to MS but if I knew I had the reputation for spreading information like that, I'd have been mortified.
If I have ever had that reputation, I hope I have proven that I'm not that person anymore. It's not that there isn't worthwhile information to disseminate. After all, if a friend's child is ill or there's been an emergency, I'd want that to be spread far and wide for intense prayer. Otherwise, though... there's all kinds of information that we can live without knowing. My brain has enough running around in it. Other people's problems and behavior can find another place to dwell.
