Thursday, April 23, 2009

On Niecelings, Groceries, and Loshon Hora

First and most certainly foremost, I have a nieceling. Adorable baby girl, Ella Clarice, my heart is glad to know you, to see you, to hold you. Pictures soon to come, but I will tell you she is a dark beauty with a sweet little coo and deep soulful black eyes. She is more than the mischievously pampered princess I was. At least at 12 hours old, she seems that way to me.

Groceries are hard to buy. I want to do it. I want to be good at it. I love to cook, I love to shop, and so it would make sense that I would love Groceries. Oh but the chore they are, with my limited and too quickly filled time. I want to make Groceries an adventure. I want to make Groceries fun. I want to be able to say that I accomplished Grocery shopping. Not online.

The very real topic of today’s blog is this: Loshon Hora. For those of you who do not know Hebrew, Loshon Hora means “Evil Tongue”, and is a prohibition of gossip in Jewish Law. Gossip is like an illness in my office. It happens. Every. Single. Day. I try to do the disinterested blank stare, I try to sway the person on to other topics, I try to remind them of all of the good things about the person they are currently trash-talking… but the moment inevitably comes when my boundaries fail me and I fall into the trap. I join in, I gossip. Then I hear the ringing voice of the ever-humble coworker, “LOSHON HORA!” and I shut my mouth, I cringe inside, and I know I will never be good at this. I am determined not to give up. I will, I will, I will, not gossip. It wasn’t a problem before I came to this office. It was a problem until I began to work just inches from another female coworker. Now it eats away at my soul.


*Note, this is the blog I started and did not finish on Tuesday, April 21st. Before the death of my uncle. I thought I should finish it and post it, and then write another on the aftermath of such an event. That post is soon to come.

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