Article April 10, 1989 Issue

Conversations with oneself

Most people know that gossip and putting other people down are wrong. But are we careful about the purity of our own thought?

Marguerite E. Buttner

A scene too often familiar: A pleasant dinner. Every detail delightful, and then the conversation lapses into talking about friends or co-workers, which often includes running them down and exaggerating their shortcomings and problems.

What a distasteful morning after! Why did I go along and contribute to that?

There might have been a time in tightly knit community life when gossip constituted most of the conversation. In some locales it still does. Where people may have little else to vary their leisure, discussing the "soap opera" of daily life seems to be a form of escape from monotony and doldrums.

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