I've got a secret

A Column
by Karen Henslee

     "Promise not to tell?"
     Have you ever tried to keep a secret?
     Everyone has... but secrets are hard to hold. Just try whispering in a room and suddenly ears everywhere are tuned in.
     All we have to do is look at the headlines in the tabloid magazines, internet news sources, 20/20-type shows and it is easy to spot the desire to dig out someone's deep-dark secrets. If there are none, something can always be fabricated with a little creative photo-editing. (I remember President Clinton's clandestine meeting with an alien from outer space. The photo of the two of them standing side by side on the White House lawn was hysterical.) The guy (the president, not the alien) was a politician; it's not like he didn't have enough questionable behaviors that were based on fact!
     Keeping secrets are like dangling a carrot in front of a horse... the urge to tell can be unbearable!
When I was a teenager, I was in Yakima watching a movie with a friend. When we came out of the theater, they discovered they'd locked their keys inside their car. They were very embarassed.      Fortunately, there was a family member who lived nearby who had an extra set of keys.
     My friend was embarassed, and swore me to secrecy.
     I don't know why it was so difficult to keep that promise... after all, it was only locking keys in a car, it wasn't a crime! But for several days, I wanted to tell that incident worse than anything. As the days passed, the desire to tell went away until it was gone completely. But at first, it was on my mind constantly. It was excruciating!
     Over the past several months, I was the one in the dark. My sister and my niece decided to plan a surprise party for me. The plans began last Thanksgiving and culminated this past Saturday. My hat is off to them, I did not suspect a thing until a week before the event. In the end, it was just a little slip that made me suspicious.
     It seems small communities have a more difficult time keeping secrets. Maybe it's because we know and are known by more people. We recognize people by their cars and we know where they stop for coffee, or where they buy their gas.
     "Mom" was right. The only way for a secret to stay secret is to keep it to yourself.