Recently I was challenged about a secret that I’ve been keeping.
I’ll share that in Part 2 of my “Secrets” series.
For now, I’d like to introduce the subject of secrets and why we keep them.
There are many types of secrets. Let’s explore the three main ones.
- Secrets to keep us safe.
- Secrets to keep someone else safe.
- Secrets to keep your country safe.
What’s behind this idea of keeping secrets?
- Secrets to keep us safe.
In a dangerous situation, such as like when we’re running away from an enemy, we would try to keep our presence secret. We go into #hiding mode. We move as quietly, as quickly as we can. We may hide behind a pillar, a car or any object until we feel that it’s safe to move on. We will do this until we can find a #safe place.
Finding a safe place is important when a gunman is attacking a school, office building, church/religious building or when terrorists attacked Westgate shopping centre in Nigeria in September 2013. Then when the danger is over, we can emerge from our hiding place. This kind of secret is called a short-term secret.
Trauma from this kind of violent event may continue for a long, long time.