Can you keep a secret? Keeping a secret of course does depend on its enormity. If something is revealed to you in confidence and you knowingly withhold a serious transgression or a heinous act, wouldn’t it be without question, your moral duty and justification to report it? Also, having full knowledge, that someone other than the offender is being wrongly accused and a victim of an injustice and being ridiculed because of it, or actually imprisoned, would you feel impelled to speak out or withhold the truth? Worse than that, wouldn’t you also be a matter of collusion with the offender if you were to withhold vital information?
A personal guarded secret, an extra marital affair, a family secret, a skeleton in the cupboard in some cases can affect your everyday existence; psychologically, emotionally and spiritually and is a matter between you and your conscience. On the other hand, if you decide to unburden yourself by sharing a secret, whereby you shift the burden of responsibility upon the shoulders of another, who at some stage may have the uncontrollable urge to reveal your secret and let-the-cat-out-of-the-bag, then it’s no longer a secret.
You might cover up a secret addiction or a fetish that is not obvious to others and those closest to you, but if it doesn’t unduly affect or harm others, then keep it under your hat.
