I was told by a colleague that another colleague of ours is psychologically unstable. The bearer of this "juicy personal news" delivered it as if it were something I totally had to know. There was even a build up, a couple of sentences, couching the statement in a very gossipy, "here comes the bomb"-type language.
I reacted with a very unsentimental, "Uhuhm". One nod included... and then I tossed out some remark about how people who have psychological disorders ought to be understood more and how the people around them ought to be more patient. I tried to move on to the broader subject and stray as far away from the person in question as possible.
Funny thing is that this person has mentioned this piece of information (which I couldn't care less about, really) three times already... and I reacted the same way every single time. Geez, enough already. Stop wasting five of my precious minutes retelling this because frankly, dear, I don't give a damn.
Reminds me of the quote:
Great minds discuss ideas,average minds discuss events, small minds discuss people.
This quote is often attributed to Eleanor Roosevelt but that's apparently disputed so...
