Suburban Goddess

Our neighborhood, as I’ve said before, is a great place to live. People actually talk to one another, look out for one another, & keep an eye on each other’s kids. It’s rare in this day and age to find a neighborhood where people actually interact. But with interaction comes the inevitable; gossip.

I opened my email this weekend to find that one of our neighbors had taken it upon herself to organize some charity events for another set of neighbors. These other neighbors have both been stricken with overwhelming health problems. Now, I know The Organizer; she herself has had health problems & people banded together to help her out in her time of need. So I understand that she feels the need to pass it on, which I think is wonderful. But in her lengthy email, she divulged a great deal of personal information about this usually private couple. I don’t know how she came by this information, but I’m assuming it was directly from the source.

Well, enter The Friend Of The Sick. She was offended that The Organizer divulged this personal information, and was upset on the part of The Sick. Thus began an email war, the War of the Righteous, right in my inbox. (This isn’t the first time there has been a war in my inbox; there was the Bunco War of 2006. Sixteen housefraus with computers can lend to some pretty interesting entertainment.) But it left me feeling uncomfortable, because now I know the entire medical history of two people that I barely know. I myself would be pretty uncomfortable if someone sent out my personal information to my entire neighborhood, but then, if I were in need, maybe I wouldn’t. I don’t know. Either way, I do feel that I didn’t really need to be cc’ed on all the ensuing responses.

Now the lines are being formed, & I’ve already been asked to pick a side. Who’s right? The Organizer, whose righteous and noble intentions were horribly misunderstood as a nosy neighbor, or the Friend of The Sick, whose righteous and noble intentions were misunderstood as a controlling housefrau? Personally, I DON’T CARE who’s right. I personally think they’re BOTH out of line for drawing my innocent little inbox into the battle. If you tell me a neighbor is in need, I will do what I can to help. I don’t need to know the gory details. If you feel it was out of line to divulge gory details, then tell the informer directly; don’t publicly shame them in front of all cyberspace.

And people wonder why I don’t drink at neighborhood functions….

This entry was posted on July 24, 2006 at 6:34 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.