Negative Nellys

I was faced with a clear case of Fakeness after posting my last blog. It hit me like a ton of bricks too. I guess fakeness is the word for it. It's more of being critical and judgemental of others, but it's the being sweet to their face part that makes it fake I guess.
I've found that I can't be around negativity for very long or I get sucked into it. I don't mean being there for someone. I mean getting dragged down into misery that loves company. People can get so lost in their problems, the things that are stressing them out, that they don't see the dark cloud of negativity around them. Trust me, I know. I've been there. You see it a lot in teaching really. Someone can lose perspective with all that goes wrong on a regular basis. There's so much we deal with that is beyond our control. It's just rolling with the punches sometimes.
Have you ever known someone who just didn't have a single nice thing to say about anyone? How annoying. Don't you just wonder what they're saying about you as you walk away, lol. It's usually dumb stuff too. It's like they have to criticize just to criticize. Well it really starts to wear on you after awhile. Pretty soon you find yourself discounting anything they have to say. You start blocking it out. It's this -talking behind someone's back- thing that makes them seem so fake. We all "vent" to others sometimes about something someone else did, so maybe we're all fake to some extent. I do have to say it still bothers me though. The one good thing that comes from hearing negative things ALL THE TIME is that it makes me more aware of my own words!
"Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen."