What's the gossip about?

Last night in my Culture as a Resource in Health and Healing course I learned so many things. I want to share ONE story because I can't really move on with my day until I get this out. (The true woman gossiper within me just has to tell somebody). This story was told to me from a classmate who interviewed a Chippewa Shaman and Healer from the Wolf Clan.

An elder told this healer a story about women, men, and gossip:

"People think women gossip and women talk amongst themselves- it's not true. They go to one another to share their experience, their secrets, to release and to learn.

Man holds it all inside, this forms a fire pit in his stomach. It fills man with sorrow. They hold it in and then they start a war.

No woman has started a war because they share.

Man starts war because he holds too much inside.

Native women have a higher level of spirituality; they know their roles in and with their partnerships. Their stomachs, their wombs are shaped like mother earth.

This scared men and their ego got in the way. They conquered women.

Now things are changing, women are bringing men closer to God.

Women are healing man, themselves and Mother Earth."

This story is really powerful to me and holds a lot of truth. Sometimes I envy men and their ability to keep bonds between their peers strong while women tend to get swept up into her man's life (in my opinion due to tradition), however this story reminds me of another truth-- about the power and strength and healing that women hold in their beings and their ability to share and to be open about their emotions and feelings.

What is even greater about the wisdom of this story I am sharing is that for those people who are so stuck on knowing the "science" behind everything, here are some interesting articles talking about the health benefits of "gossip." For me, while the science is important, I have come to a point of knowing and believing that sometimes I don't need science to know a truth. And I prefer the elder's story over the research, I find it more fascinating, beautiful, and more human.

Gossip is good for women's health

Men gossip, too