A Closed Mouth Gathers No Flies
Possibly not, but sometimes the temptation of participating in some juicy gossip is much stronger than the will to avoid those friendly individuals with such loose, almost venomous, tongues. Especially when the subject matter at hand deals with a particular person of whom we are not very fond. But who is more enamored with the art of gossiping, really: men or women?
According to my wife, us men are much more addicted to the sport of unmeasured words, sharing many more indiscretions with each other than our supposed more fragile female partners. In fact, in her opinion, we tend to gossip a hell of a lot more, we just don’t do it right! A woman knows how to share only what she wants to, and measures her words very carefully before saying them. A man, on the other hand, just gets brave after a couple of beers…and later laments what he let slip out. The truth is, and guys let me apologize now for letting this cat out of the bag, as much as I hate to admit it, the more I think about it, I realize she is actually right. Personally, I’ve uttered so many of my own truths during inebriated stupors that I don’t even know anymore how many of my secrets my buddies actually do know. As an adult, embarrassing as it is to admit, I’ve even cried in front of grown men, something I would have never, ever done without the encouragement of a few beers.
But perhaps the reason we males feel so liberated to vent with one another, especially when alcohol is involved, is because we as men are not as judgmental with each other as our female counterparts. Rarely do we take into consideration our own feelings, much less the emotions of the other person we are talking to, before words just start coming out of our mouths. And yes, I see all of you ladies nodding your heads up and down in agreement. We don’t complain about how much those words hurt our feelings, or obligate our buddies to defend their actions TIME and TIME again. Neither do we use guilt to deliver our final blow. If we get mad, we punch each other around until we get exhausted, then we continue as if though nothing ever happened.
Yes, we do like to gossip, possibly more than our wives and girlfriends, and maybe it’s not right, but we all know damn well that gossiping is one of life’s greatest and guiltiest pleasures. A good chisme makes us laugh, and sometimes even impacts the decisions we make. In my humble opinion, if we don’t open our mouths, we don’t have a voice. And what is the point of having a mouth that gathers no flies, if we can’t use it to express ourselves?
