I was struck by how much my paternal family resembled the group described in this story . My father would rail against people who gossip and over time it had left me with an intense dislike for any form of gossip or neighbor watching , so much so that when my sister commented to me that my cat was sitting at the window like our aunts , I exploded in rage . My sister looked at me with surprise and said “Are you saying that I insulted your cat by comparing him with your aunts” .
Enter social media and now we have all become Peeping Toms of everybody else’s life . Social media combined with the pernicious desire for likes (which is just a brilliant exploitation of our need for social acceptance) , ensures that we encourage this actively by posting about all our exploits and events that are sure to stir up envy .
This post has little to offer by way of originality except that I am struck by how timeless Aesop’s lessons are to us, even in this day and age. Personally I have rarely seen birds or animals who seem to be as smitten with gossip as much as my folks were so perhaps Aesop invented that just as a lesson.
The life and times of Wookers 