The Allure of Secrets

Last night, we were at a family gathering. Grandpa was turning 80. When all are gathered around the table, the pinball action of conversation is at times, hard to follow. It is great, educational, loud, comical and heartwarming.

Last night, a man was turning 80. The past of this man is filled with an array of colorful chapters. We sat and listened with fascination as he talked about his life as a child. Across from him, sat his mother-in-law; a woman on the verge of turning 90. Earlier that week, she had lunch with 10 or so alumni of her high school class. The yearbooks were brought out, the memories were recharged and again, the conversations were as quick as a well orchestrated jitterbug.

The daughter, acting as Chaperon, retold of the experience of taking her mother to her luncheon on school grounds. She captivated me. The daughter found herself reading through her mother's yearbook, all the friends who had signed - memorializing a moment that was brought back in this evening's conversation. We found ourselves laughing at the trend of the word, but more than that, we openly questioned her on those who had signed themselves into history. "What did he mean by that, Mom?" "Did you ditch class that often?" "Why would she say *that*?" "Tell us what happened that night, Mom?"

The Matriarch of the family played coy - batting her head back and forth - her mind, competing over the memory of her time, spoke: "I don't know what you are talking about," she said simply and repeatedly.The secrets were solid and locked.

In a day of Facebook, Twitter, Blogging and the almost forgotten, My Space, there are no secrets. We are an open book, literally. Conversations take different direction now - segmented with interruption, "Oh yeah, I saw you did that on Facebook," or, "That's right, you wrote about it in your blog." "I see, by your Twitter update, that you were able to go see that movie yesterday."

There was a freshness to last night. We (or I), was an invited guest to an 80 year old man's filled and challenging life and to an almost 90 year old woman's alluring past. The attractiveness is strong and I desire change without my own communication. I do not wish to be an open book, as if modeling my wares in storefront window for all to see.

I close this post with a new direction.
Thanks for listening,
Katie