Of Planes and Secrets

A few weeks ago, I was sitting on an airplane, waiting for it to take-off, headed towards Nicaragua. The gentleman next to be started sharing things, things that he should not share. He said he killed a man in cold blood . . . .

Okay, I was not going to Nicaragua; it was much closer, and the information that the man shared was still deeply personal, but it did not involve a capital crime. And throughout the conversation, I kept thinking to myself, "All I want to do is get through the magazines I carried onboard." Actually, I was thinking about how much or how little we all share. There is a phenomenon that some of us share more with strangers than we would our closest friends, family or psychiatrists. Speaking of psychiatrists, what I want to find is a therapist that would give discounts for amusing lives, amusing stories. I mean, if my 50 minutes is amusing, I make the day go by faster for my therapist, and I think compensation is the least that I can expect from him. I mean, really!

Back to my main point: what we share. I think many of us have been on a plane, and heard things, very personal things, that were told to us. Or perhaps we were the ones doing the telling. Shoot, I have read many blogs, and people share all sorts of things on their blogs. I do as well. Heck, the other day, I wrote someone about something deeply personal to me – something that only my hubbie and a few other people even know. Not sure why I shared the information, but I did.

Someone the other day in a different blog had another revelation – apparently their blog persona was a bit of a lie. Someone told me about it, but I didn't recognize the blog so I did not know if I should be shocked or not. Now I did not read how this person deceived – I really was not all that curious – but it occurs to me that when does withholding end and deception begin. I mean, if I don't reveal that I had fish Friday night for dinner, I am withholding information – that paints a more complete picture when you know this. Well, as a good Catholic, one might expect not eating meat on Fridays during lent. But even though it is an incomplete picture, is it a deceptive picture. No.

We all share incomplete pictures to our families, friends and co-workers. And I would think we are fine with this. I don't want to know my boss has a foot fetish, or my sister-in-law can't go to the bathroom without stripping completely. We consider this "too much information," or simply TMI. And if I had a secret, I am not obligated to tell anyone. I am fairly straight-forward here, though I normally keep hubbie out of my writing. I have some interesting incites on him and sometimes feel compelled to write more, but I don't. I also don't talk too much about my sluttiness. Bad past. Well, not details, because (1) I don't want to, and (2) it's not normally pertinent to the discussion.

Addendum
I actually found the site mentioned above this morning. While I did not read the entire post, I did read many of the comments. Some were supportive, and some were really mean. I guess when people are deceived, they get angry.

And then I had another thought. It had never occurred to me that the people on the plane may be stretching the truth with their problems or their careers or their experiences. You know, I tend to take people at face-value. Just seems easier that way – looking for angles, deception, or whatever seems like a waste of good thinking time.

Hmmmmmmmmmm. I guess I need to think of something lighter to post tomorrow. This was suppose to be a light post. Drat.