My Inner Clairee Belcher

What ever happened to....

...If you have nothing nice to say, say nothing at all?

Oh, I know! Steel Magnolias came along and so did Lil' Miss Clairee Belcher. She told another character in that Louisiana drawl:

If you can't find anything good to say about anybody, come sit by me.

I think we all have inner Clairee Belchers. Sometimes they entertain and other times well...they're blunt and by blunt I mean hurtful and unintentionally nasty.

I'm guilty of not always taming the Clairee Belcher inside of me and I've gotten myself in trouble. Not once but multiple times with people. The people who really know me though, get over it. It's just Erika being Erika. Don't tell Erika if you want to keep it a secret. That's why I don't tell you things! Sometimes they don't. I'm never telling you anything ever again.

It's a drug I tell you. A DRUG! I majored in journalism for that feeling of wanting to be the first to know. A long time ago, I've realized I have much more important things to do, like a jewelry board, or actual work, but then here comes somebody in the form of my mother or one of my other 30 relatives and it's all: Go ahead, Erika, take a hit. Take a puff. That's it. Easy does it. Don't inhale. Ugh!

You know what's the worst kind of gossip...the Facebook kind. Yep that's right. I said it, Facebook. The ultimate crack of gossip. When will they ever learn?

If you have nothing nice to say, don't put it on Facebook.

That's what the new rule should be, think about it people. You're embarrasing your loved ones and possibly hurting them and anyone else who cares for that person.

Now I understand freedom of speech. If I hadn't, I would have never graduated from college. But do you really have to take it that far? Even when Clairee Belcher is on full force, she still has some decorum and did her best to act like a lady and never would she take it so far as to demean a person's worth. If she did, she would actually display some mea culpa.

So if you're out there in Facebooklandia, just ask yourself. What would Clairee do?

If there's anybody out there that I've hurt. I just want to say sorry. It wasn't my intention. I'm not perfect and if you're really my friend, you'll forgive me. If you don't, then I'm not really losing a friend, now am I?

More Steel Magnolia quotes here.