"Two Sides to Every Breakup"

He said, he said. Of course, you know whom I'm talking about. There's nothing as riveting and at the same time painful as witnessing the public meltdown of a personal relationship. When the drama is being driven by chattering friends and other gossips, ones who really can't wait for the blood to be spilt or for someone to be thrown in the grinder, the public breakup takes on another dimension as Must-See-Entertainment. Meanwhile, two people are nursing hurt feelings and the rupture of a long-term friendship. Wondering how the other could betray the other. Wondering how their friend could violate what they affirmed as their bedrock moral codes. Wondering how the other could have forgotten the love they had for one another. They almost pulled it out, you know. The one we think of as the class orator had been getting flack for days about what his friend, the guy who preached, said months and years ago in his church. The orator was told that since the preacher said all these nasty, nasty things, he needed to get rid of him. Tell him that he was a racist and a lousy human being and throw him out of his life because he'd only Weigh Him Down in the future. The gossips wanted to see fealty to themselves and blood before they would promote the orator. The orator instead went to the crowd. Pulled off a brilliant speech - he said that he didn't believe in the objectionable things the preacher had said, but that the preacher was a great man and a great friend. And I'm not going to betray a friend. And then it went wrong. The preacher was feeling at first like the gossips had torn him into thousand little pieces, and then restored whole in 10 minutes of words. Felt both invulnerable and defensive. Torn down by man and restored by Man with the grace of God. Said that You're Not Gettin' Rid of Me That Easy to the gossips. I am a man of God, and I am here to Prophesize to your ignorant asses! And so the preacher made a complete fool out of himself. It is no surprise that the Devil uses pride to undermine preachers so often. Handed their tools by the guy they wanted to tar, the gossips made short work of the preacher. The orator, shocked by his friend's behaviour and words, accordingly threw away the friendship. As they wanted all along. And I imagine tonight that the orator and the preacher this evening are grieving over the loss of each other in their lives, while at the same time venting their anger at one another's defections and betrayals. And the gossips pass the sordid details into the wee hours of the morn, counting the esteem of the crowd. - idiosynchronic