Every story you heard secondhand already went through someone else’s filter.

By the time a story reaches you it has been summarised by somebody with a view. Parts were cut, an order was chosen, and the version you got serves the teller’s sense of what happened. None of that requires lying, because memory and loyalty do most of the editing on their own. What arrives feels like fact and is really a telling.

When you hear something about a person this week, hold off deciding until you have heard it from them or seen it yourself. Notice whose version you are holding. If you pass it on, say where you got it so the next person knows what they have.