Secrets

I keep many secrets. Earlier this year a friend of mine sent me an article that was published in the New York Times titled "The Secret Lives of Just About Everybody." I found it most interesting, for a variety of reasons, though right now one paraphrased quote sticks out in my mind. It was something to the effect of "everybody has secrets, because without them people lose their ability to distinguish themselves from other people."

Moreover though, I find that I keep different secrets from different people. This doesn't come really as a great surprise, in that obviously I will tell my friends different things than I tell my family. What's more notable is how among my peers, there seem to be these unacknowledged subdivisions. I've never really sat down and thought about it and tried to classify how I regard all the people I know, but in my actions, I am nonetheless segregating people into different knowledge classes in how much and of what information I choose to share about myself.

Why is it that I will tell one person one thing and another person who is a mutual friend something else entirely? I think usually I don't, as in cases like that, I could never hope to fabricate a sufficiently elaborate and well thought out web of lies that wouldn't fall apart when people talk to each other.

I do not like the way my thoughts have progressed here. I will leave this for another time.