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Secrets can be a beautiful thing, little memories shared between
friends or lovers. Sometimes they can be deadly harmful, and
sometimes they can be a way to escape reality, to create a new
identity.
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There are times in everyone's life that they would rather forget,
or wish they could have done differently, and become ashamed
of, tucking them away to become their very own skeleton in the
closet. Secrets, however essential they seem to be, can be the
cause of division in a relationship. If one discovers another's
withheld past experiences, they might walk away feeling hurt
that they kept this from them. On the other hand, if abuse or
trauma has been kept secret for years, and issues develop that
the cause of is unknown, digging up the past, despite the undoubted
pain resulting, can be the lightbulb clicking on to the solution. |
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The difference between keeping something bottled up inside
and facing, addressing, the issue and living with the realization
that there's no alternative but to deal with it and grow from
it, can be life-altering. The difference is, no matter how fast
you run from them, they're always a step or two behind. Some
people are so afraid of being 'revealed' to the world they tend
to crawl inside a cocoon, wrapping themselves in tighter and
tighter with choking lies, or simply hiding the real 'them'.
Of course, everyone has their little "mask" they wear
when they want to impress someone, or when they don't want to
appear to be afraid. But those are more often easier to peel
off. The ones that tend to mould to the person's existing persona,
the ones that are put on to hide entire emotions, are the ones
that are a lot more difficult to remove.
We all feel at times the fear of being discovered for who
we really are. We can see it right in high schools, where conformity
is essential to social 'survival'. If any diversion from the
accepted 'norm' is detected, the person is either chastised,
looked down upon, or completely made an outcast if the little
'rebellion' continues. Whoever creates these 'norms' is really
an unknown, but they cause a lot of teenagers to be afraid to
act themselves, afraid to show any individuality. There are always
those brave enough to 'face the elements'. Unfortunately they're
usually looked at as 'eccentric', 'freaks', or just plain weird.
The problem lies at the "secret person of the heart".
Fear of man creates the urge to assume the identity of someone
we feel sure will be accepted instead of being ourselves, where
we risk the chance of being 'rejected'.
It's a sad statement that self-preservation is necessary in our
age of modern technology, but no matter how many 'e-whatever's'
there are and how advanced scientists discover our potential
actually is, self-doubt will always be there. Always, unless
we attempt to change the ingrained opinion society somehow got
from their six-year-olds singing innocently, "I'm better
than you are.." Changing this would be an extremely long,
difficult process, taking generations upon generations to alter.
However demanding the task, the idea that children could grow
up in a world where they could sing their hearts out without
being afraid, voice their opinions without being chastised, show
their feelings without being made fun of, is certainly worth
the effort. There should be no reason to be anyone else than
the persons we have become, the only secrets worthwhile keeping
are those that create a mystique, an aura of fun mystery around
you.
Charlotte Bronte said it well, "The human heart has hidden
treasures, In secret kept, in silence sealed;-The thoughts, the
hopes, the dreams, the pleasures, Whose charms were broken if
revealed." |
