Tuesday, March 01, 2005

Keeping Secrets

My brother showed me this site today, which I found somewhat interesting. People mail in their secrets on a postcard to the address at this site and then the secrets are scanned and put up. It seems like an interesting concept and I found a lot of the secrets posted funny, although a few were scary too. In reading this site, I reflected for a moment on the concept of secrecy and how it operates in my life.

Personally I detest secrets, but I also realize that just about everyone has them. I have my own secrets that I don't tell people, usually because it doesn't apply to them at all or it's about them and I don't want them to know. I never try to purposely withhold something from someone if I feel they should know simply because I am one of the few idealists left in the world that believes honesty is the best policy. I've managed to get myself into a fair amount of trouble in the past by always trying to tell the truth, but I maintain that I believe it is the best course of action for most situations. This may also stem from my neo-Kantian philosophical views, but that's a story for another post.

Even though I realize that people have secrets and that some people feel the need to keep them no matter what, I often get mad or feel like I'm somehow not good enough to know something when someone won't tell me something. Whenever I am purposely left in the dark, I often become furious with the person leaving me in the dark.

I am also a firm believer that everyone needs some type of confidant in their life to tell all of their secrets too. I know that I wouldn't be able to function a lot of the time if I didn't have someone that I could open up to and let out what I have kept way down inside of me, the things that no one else knows, and all of my secrets.

So... where I was going with any of this, I really don't know, but the concept of secrecy really intrigues me, especially the need that some people have to exercise complete secrecy of certain things from everyone. Maybe I should send off a postcard with a secret on it to the above mentioned website and see how it makes me feel...

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