Burn Baby Burn.

I want to tell you a secret

She said, "May I come Close? I have many demons inside".

I answered, "Don't come any closer, there is already a hell inside of me, created by unwelcome gifts from others like you".

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For the frivolous and trivial minded, gossip is an important currency. 

Such people trade so called 'secrets' with one another until nothing is secret and everything is naked. All useless but extremely entertaining. 

The small and idle minded can be forgiven for that is all they can indulge in.

Humans are full of confusion and feel burdened with numerous guilty feelings. They have to unburden themselves and therefore seek to get sins and crimes off their chest. 

Of course if you want to control people then listening to their secrets and confessions gives you tremendous leverage over them, for you can extract a heavy price to make them feel better or to keep their secret. I used to enjoy people telling me their secrets for the same reason but not any more. 

As I evolve, this trait of accumulating negative and harmful thoughts have simply ceased

I do not want people to tell me their secrets, though I am good at keeping other people's secrets. It is a terrible quality to possess for I am burdened by carrying someone else demons. The burden of these secrets were burning in others now they burn inside me.

Many a times we are told, "I am going to tell you a secret, but you have to promise not to tell anyone else". Is it not foolish for people to expect someone else to keep your secret which you yourself cannot keep?

It is believed that the profession with the highest suicide rates are psychiatrists,  and why not? They are constantly overloaded with other people's treachery, complaints, secrets, guilts and problems. 

“If you have a secret that you don’t want anyone to know, maybe you shouldn’t be doing it in the first place.”- Eric Schmidt

I would add, if you feel burdened by a guilt, ask yourself, if you are really guilty and by whose definition? Has it harmed anyone or nature? Most often we are made to feel guilty of perfectly natural behaviour but classified as sins or crimes by people who wish to trap and manipulate us. If you don't feel guilty then there is nothing to confess.

Empathy, is certainly a desirable trait in people. It is the ability to place oneself in someone else's shoes, and to be compassionate. Empathy however, is different from allowing people possession of your mind and filling it up with useless gossip and often malicious information.

Next time someone wants to bare their soul to you or tell you a secret, maybe you should reconsider whether you should be listening to it.

New Enemies

François-Marie Arouet a French philosopher was popularly known as Voltaire

He was also an enlightenment writer, historian. Famous for his wit, his attacks on the established aristocracy, Catholic Church, and his advocacy of freedom of religion, freedom of expression, and separation of church and state. 

Voltaire was a versatile writer, producing works in almost every literary form, including plays, poems, novels, essays, and historical and scientific works. He wrote more than 20,000 letters and more than 2,000 books and pamphlets. 

He was an outspoken advocate of several liberties, despite the risk this placed him in under the strict censorship laws of the time.  He frequently made use of his works in satirical form to criticise intolerance, religious dogma, and the French institutions of his day.

Not surprisingly Voltaire faced lifelong troubles with the authorities for critiques of dictatorial, unjust and hypocritical forces. 

Voltaire's activities were to result in numerous imprisonments and exiles. Yet the brave man refused to give up his principles.

He mainly argued for religious tolerance and freedom of thought. He campaigned to eradicate dictatorial priestly and aristo-monarchical authority, and supported a constitutional monarchy that protects people's rights.

The character and beliefs of the man can be judged by his words and actions. In arguing a particular case he declared, "I do not agree with what you say, but I shall defend to my dying breath your right to say it."

Despite great pressure and threats from the aristocracy and the Church, Voltaire refused till his dying breath to retract his well-known criticism of the Church.

François-Marie Arouet popularly known as Voltaire (1650 -1722) 

Whilst on his deathbed, Voltaire was asked by a Catholic priest to renounce Satan. With a smile he replied, 

"Now is not the time to make new enemies"