My sister told my mother that she has booked to buy a car. My brother was with them at the time, so indirectly my sister told him too. She made mother to promise to keep the information secret for now, as she wanted to surprise my father. “She didn’t tell me to keep it a secret from you,” said mother when she told me about it. My sister didn’t tell me about her buying a car, so I suppose she was planning to surprise me as well, but my mother just couldn’t help telling it away. “Don’t tell her that I told you,” mother warned me.
Can you keep a secret? I’d like to think that I can, though sometimes I’m not entirely sure about it myself. There are secrets, and there are secrets. People keep all kinds of secrets for all kinds of reasons. The moment you tell even one person whom you trust completely of a secret, you may just as well prepare that everyone else will know about it. It may not be that the person whom you told of the secret violated your trust by telling it to someone else, but you may have slipped yourself. If you couldn’t help telling one person, you could have easily told others too, even unknowingly. The walls have ears, they say, or hidden cameras.
When a person tells someone else a secret they rarely tell the whole story, so the recipient may not fully appreciate the actual context, motivation and gravity of the situation. Alternatively, the other person may simply disagree and have a different idea.
Like, when I thought rather than pretending to be surprised later when my sister unveils her new car, which may be some weeks in the future, it would be more interesting to see her reaction to finding out that her secret was out now.
“When are you getting your car?”
It was priceless.
The point is, if you have a secret you want to remain a secret, keep it to yourself.
Can you keep a secret? I’d like to think that I can, though sometimes I’m not entirely sure about it myself. There are secrets, and there are secrets. People keep all kinds of secrets for all kinds of reasons. The moment you tell even one person whom you trust completely of a secret, you may just as well prepare that everyone else will know about it. It may not be that the person whom you told of the secret violated your trust by telling it to someone else, but you may have slipped yourself. If you couldn’t help telling one person, you could have easily told others too, even unknowingly. The walls have ears, they say, or hidden cameras.
When a person tells someone else a secret they rarely tell the whole story, so the recipient may not fully appreciate the actual context, motivation and gravity of the situation. Alternatively, the other person may simply disagree and have a different idea.
Like, when I thought rather than pretending to be surprised later when my sister unveils her new car, which may be some weeks in the future, it would be more interesting to see her reaction to finding out that her secret was out now.
“When are you getting your car?”
It was priceless.
The point is, if you have a secret you want to remain a secret, keep it to yourself.
Exactly... once told to someone else, there's no more secret lah... :-). I usually tell something because I know it will travel across to the person that I really want to let know of the 'secret', senang tak payah aku nak cakap sendiri, LOL.
ReplyDeleteWell, that's a very inefficient way of communicating with someone, don't you think?
ReplyDeleteGuess you never been the "middle man" for every single thing in the family :-)
ReplyDeleteWhen my mum told me something about my siblings, it means "advice them but don't say I told you about it".
When my siblings complained to me about my mum's health, it means "tell mum to do this but don't say we tell you about it".
When my siblings tell me about each other, they mean "tell he or she is wrong lah, but don't say I tell you this".
After a while, I just got used to that idea of communication, LOL.
Ah, the go-between role, I totally get it! It isn't really about secrets now, is it?
ReplyDeleteI thought you meant some real cloak and dagger stuff...
:P
either dia nak surprise kau atau dia tak suka kau.
ReplyDeletekau rasa yang mana bro? hihihihi...
Woo, tak baik la cakap macam tu!
ReplyDeleteIt depends. None of my siblings practically stays with my mum since we are all over the map. So, for instance, when my brother or sister got into a car accident, they told me first and half-heartedly warned me not to tell my mum. Nevertheless, there were hints that they wanted me to actually tell my mum so that they didn't have to tell her first-hand.
ReplyDeleteAfter all, if I told my mum about it and also warned her not to say that I told her, she had to act surprised when they told her about it themselves eventually. And it's hard to be mad while pretending to be surprised, isn't it? Works for my siblings all the way :-P