05.03.07 The 5th Sign of a Negative-Gossip Conversation

5. Jubilating at the Predicament of Others

Conversations that rejoice at the catastrophes of others can be categorised as negative gossip.

The psalmist, King David, was a victim of that kind of gossip on several occasions, one of which is revealed in Psalm 41:5–8 where, not only were some people getting a kick out of seeing him suffer but they would go ahead and gossip against it, See what that scripture reports (MSG): … “My enemies are wishing the worst for me; they make bets on what day I will die. If someone comes to see me, he mouths empty platitudes, All the while gathering gossip about me to entertain the street-corner crowd. These “friends” who hate me whisper slanders all over town. They form committees to plan misery for me.

In our JuaLink story, we see Lulu’s jubilant gossip. In fact, Neema almost got dragged into such a conversation the day Lulu celebrated the ‘falling through’ of JuaLink’s first ever publicity drive. She (Neema) must have been confused, to say the least, since the three of them; that is, Faraja, Lulu and herself had worked tirelessly to pull the event off. So, when the breakfast did not go as planned, she (Neema) would have expected Lulu’s mood to be at ‘half-mast’. But when Lulu showed up with a beaming face, Neema must have wondered what her excitement was all about. When Neema tried to pick Lulu’s thoughts, it was then that she (Neema) discovered that Lulu was secretly overjoyed that the event had flopped, at least according to her (Lulu’s) definition of ‘flopping’”.

Therefore, if you find that a conversation includes any merry making linked to or associated with a problem faced by the person or entity being gossiped against, that is definitely a ‘negative-gossip conversation.