Everybody has three faces

This is true. There’s the public face. There’s the private face. There’s the secret face.

The secret face is that which we keep to ourselves and never tell anyone. it might be out of guilt and shame or it might be a matter of survival.

Then there’s the private face. These are the things we share among those we are close to. Nothing to be ashamed of but also not something you want broadcast to the entire world.

And, of course, there is the public face. Pretty self-explanatory.

Different people have different standards for which belongs where. One person’s secret face is another’s public face. There’s the bishop whose visits to gay bars were publicly announced by the officials of his denomination after they hired a company to identify his phone and then track where he had gone. His entire life has been destroyed. For a public face on the same thing, there are many many many gays who have come out publicly. Will he be able to transition?

There are plenty of secret nudists out there, though most are probably private nudists. I am actually a bit proud of being a more public nudist though even I wouldn’t go up and down the street locally announcing it. There are still morally constipated people where I live who’d give me shit. It can be impractical to leave that closet totally behind.

Keeping things secret is bad for you on a psychological level but on the private or public level, it is a way to avoid harm. The secret face isn’t always evil and it isn’t always wrong.

Unless you are out there hurting people, it isn’t my place to judge you for your secret or for the fact you keep it a secret. Everyone has all three faces.

You will need to translate this post from the original Vietnamese. I am using an app called “Translate web pages” in Firefox.