keeping secrets

I am quite one-sided in my opinon on secrets. Too one-sided, in fact. I sometimes get in trouble for freely discussing the goings-on the lives of my friends and acquaintances. I have been able to get it through my thick skull that some secrets simply are not mine to tell – traumatic stories of abuse, anything that makes people cry, etc.

However, I have a harder time not talking about general human instances of trouble or struggle. These seem normal to me and I expect for everyone to assume that certain bad things are happening with everyone. Everyone has family issues, everyone struggles with their faith in God.

But I still get embarrassed when people talk about my love life. But I still feel like this should be out in the open, to a certain extent. Being seen as a fool is part of life.

A friend at L’Abri told me that the best thing for us would be for our sins to be covered on the evening news every day.

I was raised by two members of a generation and of a culture that treasured secrecy, the value of appearance, and a certain level of politeness and propriety. I have reacted by thinking that most of those things are silly and distracting.

What’s the balance to this?