Is secrecy harmful? Answering a very general question like this one usually tends to get tricky at times. It's not really a matter of secrecy being harmful or not; It's a matter of one correctly using his/her right to keeping a secret. I can't even begin to imagine a time when there was no such thing as a secret, so to say that the inappropriateness of secrecy can be avoided by not dealing with secrets would not be fair since it would basically not be possible. Realistically, secrets can and usually do cause pain and suffering between all parties involved in the secret. Whether you are the one living with the secret or the one keeping it for someone else, secrets – if not properly used – can and usually will cause emotional distress.
             Try to imagine what not having any secrets would feel like. How vulnerable would someone feel in the hands of his peers, his friends, his siblings, his relatives, or anyone, if they all knew everything that there was to know about that person? To put oneself out there in the world at that level of vulnerability is neither safe nor sane. Now try to imagine a life where you hold any secrets you might have – whether it's a sixth toe or your first crush – very dear to your heart. You keep these secrets within you and may eventually decide to share them with a very close friend. Since people don't know these particular things about you – for example, the sixth toe – they cannot ridicule you. Now I don't know about you, but most people would have to choose the latter, only because it gives the individual in question a certain level of depth and mystery which is normal in all human beings.
             One time I went home from school and saw my cousin crying to my aunt that her best friend had told everyone in the class that she had gotten a very low grade on a test that the rest of the class had done fairly well on. She was crying and saying things like, "I told...