Keeping Secrets

What seems like a hundred years ago, I was a school administrator's wife.  He was a principal in the district where we lived.  I was a non-contract employee in the same district because the district (illegally) wouldn't employ spouses of administrators.  (But that's another topic of discussion.)

My then-spouse attended many administrative meetings and was required to attend every School Board meeting (once a month).  He knew stuff that wasn't open for the general public to know.  Most of the time, he shared it with me when he came home.  Thus, I had "insider information" that I knew I dared not share.  I think I might have had colleagues that thought I could tell them things they were curious about, but I simply didn't, even when it would have been to my advantage to do so.  That was long ago and seemingly far away.

In more recent years, I have been privileged to know things that others don't, yet.  As an example, there are times when a death/obituary hits social media before the departed's family has a chance to announce it.  Neither right nor fair, says I.  Still, there is a human urge to be the first to divulge a "scoop".  I've been stung a couple of times when I released information that I thought was already public.  Now, I ask first if I have permission to talk about personal things that aren't part of my story to tell.  Sometimes, it kills me to have to sit on things that I know long enough for the particulars to find the motivation to tell.

It isn't that others are keeping their secrets.  They just need to tell them in their own time and circumstances, and just because I already know the facts doesn't mean that I have the right to tell what I know before that happens.

Thankfully, I have learned to take the High Road, over time.  It didn't come easily.  I still have to think before I say stuff.  If I am to be trusted by the ones that I love, I need to be true to my word to keep their secrets, and mine, until the coast is clear.  Life goes on!