Sands of Misinformation

I remember when I was in sixth grade outdoor ed, there was a haze about the air wherever you looked, especially the sun, which appeared to be draped in an orange veil. The counselors told us there were wind storms in Mongolia that had blown sand and dirt into the atmosphere and it was circling around the world. Prior to that, I thought people were the only interconnectivity between the continents. Our technology and transportation were the only things shrinking our planet.
I've never verified that fact. I think about it too much to want to find out if it may indeed be false. But I do know for a fact volcanic ash travels the world. Krakatoa's ash cloud made the weather in Europe so gray and dreary that it inspired Mary Shelly to write Frankenstein. So it's entirely possible that during that week when I was twelve I was washing Mongolian dirt off my face after a day hike.
Whether or not the sand fact is true, misinformation is a lot like the grains of sand. And we're the wind that spreads it. I personally feel like a gale. The things in life that I best remember are learned conversationally. And I can't really verify those facts. But I still love sharing them with other people I happen to meet along my journeys. And I know they get passed on as well.
When I was in Fargo last week, I was sandbagging in a line with a bunch of funny and jovial guys. Somehow, I was able to throw out into the conversation that Jamie Lee Curtis is intersexed, that she was born with both male and female sex organs. I know this is an urban legend. But I remember a genetics teacher telling me about it and I've heard it asked as a question at pub trivia. So misinformation or not, it's prevalent in our pop culture, and I did my part to bring it to Fargo. I remember I told the guys that little bit shortly after sunset and right until we called it a night at ten, they asked every passing person, "Did you know Jamie Lee Curtis is a hermaphrodite?" I feel like I'm behind an epidemic against Ms. Curtis. Rumor, fact, or misinformation, I watched "knowledge" spread like wildfire over the span of three hours.
I think about the places I've been, the random conversations I seem to fall into, and the sea of facts in my head where the trivia leaps out like dolphins. As much as I feel like a grain of sand caught in the wind, I'm made up of more wind than sand and I'm blowing grains around the world.