Tattle Tales

Nobody likes a tattle tale.

For whatever reason, the need to curry favor results in hurt feelings for someone as well as a breach of trust. Children deal with this better than adults, I think, perhaps because of their youth and directness, perhaps because of their lack of fear. An adult tattle tale is more complicated - I find myself searching for motives, trying to discover the underlying agenda, trying to comprehend why someone would tattle rather than simply speak up and out directly. Grown up tattle tales are about control, preserving position and strength, sending reminder messages not to challenge authority. Grown up tattle tales are about power, manipulation and hierarchy, the ability to get someone else in hot water and the need to demonstrate that you can do it. It's a puzzle. There is, it seems to me, precious little benefit to the tattler, except that they look and perhaps feel superior. I wonder if it might not be that tattle tales are insecure and can only prop themselves up by dragging another down.

If there's nothing to carry tales about, a child will go off in search of something while an adult will create an issue out of whatever is handy. We build mountains to watch others fall trying to climb them.