“Three may keep a secret if two of them are dead” is a quotation attributed to Benjamin Franklin and which has become an adage that has been handed down from generation to generation since his time. I personally think that something is a secret as long as one person knows it and as soon as someone else comes to know of it, it stops being one.
By my definition, there are many pieces of information that have been shared with me by others with the proviso that they are not to be revealed to anyone else. So, am I right in treating them as just pieces of information rather than secrets? For instance if a husband / wife pair of friends share separate intimate information about each other, what should I do with those pieces of information? One of those questions for which there is no answer!
I often say that I am an open book and that I have no secrets hidden away in some depths of my soul. Not surprisingly, I am not believed by most people who hear that. They insist that every one has secrets. My usual response is that the only secret that I keep is the fact that I don’t have secrets.
AND, there are open secrets. Quite why they are called open secrets is anybody’s guess. I live in Pune that has some great open secrets, read political corruption, that every citizen and many from other cities also know but, which remain secrets for the authorities who refuse to take action.
I know of a medium sized town where, there are at least three cuckolds who are open secrets, except that the cuckolds themselves are not aware of being cuckolds. There are also some some philanderers about whom the whole neighbourhood knows except their respective wives. Three seems to be some kind of conspiracy not to inform the offended parties about the infidelities of their spouses. Secrets being kept secrets!
My fellow 2 on 1 blogger Shackman is another open book whose take on the same topic for this week’s Friday post must be quite interesting too. Please do go over to his blog to see what his take is.