The setting was at work, and the lesson was one of privacy. A while back I was coping with a rather difficult situation involving a persistent failure in communications and I grew angry and vented my anger onto my blog. At the time I had not developed any privacy controls and let it ride. I didn’t use any proper names and what I wrote was protected speech under the 1st Amendment, but that didn’t stop management from staging an intervention. The message was not for them and I know who played the role of the little snitch. Right afterwards I parted the red sea of privacy between my “work persona” and my real self. I took my Twitter stream private, I started to password protect my blog entries and only share the password with people I trust. I then divided the sea in Facebook. Now everyone I work with is summarily sent to the gulag of “NoWall” and “MysteryMeat”. They can friend me, but they can’t see ANYTHING AT ALL.

What I really think and who I really am is now hidden away from them and will be forever. They will not get to know me and they will not be a part of my life outside of work. They can enjoy my public work-persona, but they have permanently lost my respect and lost access to who I really am. I refuse to accept cowards and those that gain advantage from cowardly acts. I also refuse to accept those that are traitors to confidence. The best way to help myself is to help them, by blinding them after a fashion. As I have told them afterwards “You’ll never be bothered that way again.” Amen.