When I was in the seventh grade, I had a classmate named Joyce who went around talking about everybody. She wasn’t just a gossip, but she was also a person who used the information she obtained by cozying up to people for her own purposes. Sometimes she used the information to boost her own favorability in the eyes of a teacher by tattle telling on someone. Other times she used the information to undermine the credibility of someone she saw as competition. And at times she used information as revenge. Many times she wasn’t completely honest in her representation of what she knew. She stretched or contorted the information to make herself look good or someone else look bad. She created conflict where there was little or none. Her behavior was disruptive. On the surface Joyce was caring and likable, but beneath her charming façade she was devious and manipulative and we all knew it and hated that destructive behavior. One day, I had had enough and I was determined to do something about it. Continue reading “Backstabbers”
Home of the Fully Present Better Human Project and in the moment issues from the perspective of a 50+ African American woman with a doctorate in education and 3 grown children and 3 grown step-children .