Can you keep a secret?...

Can you keep a secret?  I don’t know if anyone really can.  Can we?  Keeping a secret means you are the only one who knows.  It doesn’t mean you can share it with your best friend, your spouse, your dog…I will live, breathe and (hopefully not anytime soon) die by the philosophy that if you don’t want someone to know something, you won’t tell someone else, not to tell anybody.  Does that make sense?

I personally don’t think we are meant to keep secrets.  Especially now in our technologically-driven social media world.  I know very few people who can keep a secret.  And yes, if more than one person knows something, it is not a secret.  Most people will say, “Well I told my husband, I tell him everything.”  Which essentially means, no you cannot keep a secret.  A lot of you said you could keep a secret…I don’t have any secrets I want tested, so I can verify that to be true or not, but if you really can keep one, kudos to you.

Most of the time we WANT people to know things.  Sometimes we purposely test people, by asking them to keep a secret.  We live in a world where we prefer that the world knows what we have going on.  Well most of us do.  Some of us prefer that no one knows our business and that really is the best, but it is entirely TOO easy to let people know things now.  When I was growing up, good news or bad news, or any news for that matter, took a long time to get places.  So the life of a secret had some longevity.  Nowadays, most secrets get around before they are even finished being told.

I don’t like secrets.  I like happy surprises.  But I don’t like secrets.  No good usually comes out of one.  If you ask me, a secret weighs pretty heavy.  Like the kind of heavy that isn’t worth dragging around.  I have my own secrets.  Personal secrets.  Secrets that hurt no one.  We all do.  Those are ours to deal with.  I don’t want to keep secrets.  So don’t ask me to.  If you tell me something is a surprise and then ask me not to tell someone, I can do that.  Is that different?  Yes, I do believe so.

Bottom line.  You have a secret?  It is no longer a secret when you tell someone…or I guess you are gambling if you choose to.  Do so at your own discretion.  But don’t tell me.  I don’t like them.  You are going to surprise someone and want me not to spill those beans?  I can handle that.  But a secret that may or may not be harmful to someone, anyone, don’t tell me.  I don’t want to know.  I would rather be oblivious. 

And one more thing?  Don’t tell me YOU HAVE A SECRET…and then leave it at that.  If you have no intentions of sharing (even though I don’t want to know) don’t bother telling people you have something you are not sharing.  That is a huge pet peeve and it just makes me mad.