Secret problems

I have a secret, and a problem. I'm not allowed to tell it to any one, the secret, not the problem, and that is a big problem. But then, the whole thing about secrets is a contradiction. I mean, what is the point of keeping a secret, if you can't tell anyone? But then you have the problem of a revealed secret. Once a secret is revealed, it is no longer a secret. You can try to get the person you have told it to, to swear to secrecy too, but you have already broken a confidence placed in you, so you are not setting a good example. The trust placed in you by the original secret holder has been shattered. You may think "It's OK, this person won't tell anyone", but the simple fact that you have already told someone else, means you have broken a trust.

Is this all making sense? No? Good.

Then you have the problem that I now have. I have announced that I have a secret. Simply by making that announcement, I have subconsciously placed an expectation in you, as the reader, that I will eventually reveal the secret in question. Why is this so? I guess the thought is "He has revealed he has a secret. Why would he reveal that, if he didn't want to reveal the secret itself?"

Well, part of me does want to reveal the secret. And herein lies another contradiction. I want to reveal the secret, but I also know that to do this will break the trust placed in me. I also realise that part of my wanting to reveal the secret is to show that I know something that you don't. But if I do reveal it, then you would know it too, and therefore my advantage of superior knowledge would be immediately lost.


There is also another fact to consider. The fact that your inner sense of self worth is improved when you demonstrate to yourself that you are capable of, and worthy of, keeping the trust placed in you. This is not something that you can express to someone else, without appearing at least a little but conceited or smug. So I will say nothing more on that, except to say that this is the reason that I am going to disappoint some of you, and not reveal the secret. Part of me is disappointed by this, but a bigger part of me is glad to show that I can be trusted to keep a secret.

(There is also the issue of a secret that has been discovered by accident, but that is a whole other can of worms.)

DPS