Secrets

Secrets
Promise you’ll keep my secret --- these words have echoed down the corridors of time. Since time immemorial secrets have been an integral part and parcel of human life --- whether personal or professional!
From your youth until the day we die, we share secrets with others and are told secrets by others. These secrets range from casual, gossipy secrets to heart-rending, life-altering ones. Some of these secrets are hidden mysteries beyond the understanding of the human mind, also known as the mysteries of life: for example, how the Egyptians built the pyramids or how the universe came into existence.
Then, there are also government and military secrets – confidential military matters and government policies. The government and army cannot reveal their strategies to their antagonists, so they have to keep them secret. They keep these secrets when they feel that letting out some kind of information would create havoc amongst the population. Most governments may also want to keep secret many illegal operations or hide their inefficiencies so that the people don’t lose confidence in them. Hence, they work on a “need to know” basis. They let out information only when they think the public will not criticize them.
Finally, there are secrets, which are of personal nature – things that others have done or we have done ourselves. Almost everyone has experiences, memories, and feelings they want to keep private or share only with selective people; which in many cases can be your parents. Sometimes, these secrets are our deep dark secrets, which we keep to conceal our fears, embarrassment and shame. We could conceal something we feel embarrassed by or something that we feel makes us look foolish. It could even just be something too painful to us personally and we do not like talking about it. These secrets we keep in a futile attempt to erase our past; the past which we are trying to forget desperately.
Unfortunately, secrets do not remain secrets for long and come out in the open. As Samuel Johnson once said” to keep your secret is wisdom; but to expect others to keep it is folly”. We cannot expect a person to keep our secret because in this day and age, nobody can be trusted. If somebody discloses our secret, it is our fault. It was our lack of perception and poor judgment due to which we chose an unworthy confidant. Therefore, it is usually wiser not to relate your private concerns to others, especially those whom you cannot trust. To do so can embarrass loved ones and delight our enemies, and have other unpleasant consequences as well. Those who freely publicize the secrets of their hearts drag themselves and others towards an inevitable downfall.
A secret is a power only as long as it stays with its owner, but is a weapon that may be used against its owner if it passes into the hands of the wrong people. “The secrets is your slave, but you become its slave if you disclose it”