I was at orientation yesterday and the Dean of Students mentioned a couple things about rumors, mainly that one should not believe them. That being said, even if all rumors were false, that would not mean that rumors are useless or should be ignored. Rumors seem to start in an atmosphere of either boredom or fear. And even boredom is a type of fear: (often collective) fear that one's life has come to a place where meaning is fleeting, where one is not content with things as they are but is reluctant to venture anything to make them better. Few ever seem to know where a rumor begins. Perhaps this is because the beginning of a rumor is so small that one does not notice it as such. It is a pine nut, a mustard seed. A seed of rumor grows because it finds fertile ground. A rumor can confirm our worst fears. It can incite us to anger, or shock us in ways that the truth rarely does. I find rumor in the times when those around me are in a state of uncertainty and want definite answers that...