Recently in the news I noticed an article that said British actor Benedict Cumberbatch was on the set of the BBC series Sherlock and held up a sign for the paparazzi camped outside. His sign read, “Go photograph Egypt and show the world something important.” While I’m not anyone famous at this point in my life, and a I don’t have any paparazzi following me around to know what it feels like, I have a pretty good idea and I can understand Benedict’s point that he was trying to make.
Doesn’t the world have more important things going on in it right now than following someone who people consider “famous” just to get a headline that is often just the spreading of gossip or the reporting of potential news oddities about them? Unfortunately, there are many in this world who enjoy that gossip and it’s those people who thrive on the Paparazzi’s news.
One of the definitions of the word “gossip” that I found online is the “casual or unconstrained conversation or report about other people, usually involving details that are not confirmed as being true.” In much easier terms, gossip is often the exaggeration or complete fabrication of factual information about someone.
It’s hard to not miss some of these news headlines as they are everywhere these days. They talk about the latest celebrity relationships on the rocks. They talk about someone famous who’s just beginning a new romance. They talk about a star who is arrested and might have a potential alcohol or drug problem, or maybe even a mental imbalance. And of course, there’s even those many headlines these days about some famous person’s baby that is on the way or was just born.
Frankly, I don’t understand why so many people really care about this type of news. On the grand scheme of things, why do any of those things matter to people? Don’t we all have those same exact news going on around us all the time in our own lives with our friends and families? Why is it so important to see what’s possibly happening in the personal lives of all these famous people? Regardless of the reasons, I have noticed that for those people who like what the paparazzi report on, they are generally also guilty themselves of gossiping in their own lives. At one time in my life, I was guilty of this and did spread a lot of my own gossip. The more I think about it, I probably did pay a lot more attention in those periods of my life to the stuff the paparazzi was reporting on.
Thankfully, I am doing everything I can now, on every level, to not be a part of gossip. I have seen the destruction it creates. It often hurts and can destroy the lives of others. When I used to gossip, I would sensationalize something that I heard or saw and add my own spin to it. I did this for the sole purpose of trying to be the center of attention, or to avoid bringing any negative attention to the drama I had back then in my own life. Sadly, this moved me in the exact opposite direction from being a spiritually God-centered, and unconditionally loving person. And unfortunately there are too many people in this world who still thrive on gossip regardless of the potential of this happening within them. Because of this, I don’t think things such as the paparazzi, those news tabloids, or any of those reality shows about famous people are going away anytime soon. It wasn’t until I began to see how much I was hurting people when I spread gossip or even more importantly when I was on the receiving end of it, that I made the decision to start moving away from all forms of it.
If you really want to see this world become a better place to live in, there is one thing you can do, if you haven’t already. Stop reading, watching, spreading, or being a part of any type of gossip. Ignore the gossip the paparazzi reports on and what you might hear even closer to home from your friends or family. Whether or not there is factual based information in what you are seeing or hearing, it often hurts and destroys the people it’s about. Ask yourself what it might feel like, or what it has felt like, when any gossip is about you? It usually doesn’t feel very good and often evokes a lot of negative feelings inside. The one thing I do know is that if you remove yourself from all forms of gossip, then you and this world will become a lot brighter because of it. I know I did…
Peace, love, light, and joy,
Andrew Arthur Dawson