if it weren't for the little birdies, we'd all be up a tree.

can i tell you a secret?

well, of course i can, but then it wouldn't be a secret anymore, would it?

or, would it?

would you say that two people can have a secret? three? twenty? a hundred? is the number of people that know something a factor in its being a secret, or is it really the number of people who do not know something that defines its secretness? we can all keep a secret from you. alternately, you can keep a secret from all of us.

if you tell me a secret and tell me not to tell anyone, but i tell just one someone, and that just one someone doeesn't tell anyone else and i don't tell anyone else... is that so bad? is your secret weakened? if you never learn that i told just one someone, is our trust eroded? if you don't know and never find out, then how could you trust me less?

but i would have a secret, then, from you. i would have the secret that i told just one someone your secret. if we told each other everything and had a lot of secrets together but didn't have any secrets from each other, but then i created this secret of my having told just one someone your secret, would things change between us? would you be able to tell i had created a secret?

what makes a thing that only i know into a secret? is something a secret simply because i choose not to volunteer it, or is it only made into a secret if i am forced to hide it? if you never ask and i never tell, is that a secret? or, is it only a secret if you ask and i decline to say, or if you ask and i say a lie to cover. if you ask me what size shoes i wear, i will tell you, but if you do not ask you will not know. so is my shoe size a secret?

what if there is a thing that only i know and it is something about you, that you don't even know, but that only i can know because of the way that i know you. i know a secret about you and it's a secret because i am keeping it from you. what if i were to tell someone else this secret about you, would that be a betrayal of your secret? how could it be? you didn't even know this thing about yourself so how could my telling it to someone else betray your trust?

what if i sort of discerned something about you and i think you don't know this thing about yourself, but you do know it. so i have discerned this thing and i think you don't know it, but you do know it, but i don't say anything because i think i am keeping a secret of which you are unaware, but i am actually keeping a secret in parallel to your keeping the same secret yourself. so, we both know the thing, but neither of us says. is it a secret if we both actually know it?

can i tell you a secret?

well, can i?