[Clearly there is a birthday coming and it's got me thinking out loud, lol]
In life and in politics I’ve never been on to let people know what I’m really thinking. Mom taught me early on never to let people know exactly what I’m thinking – and in politics you learn early on to adopt the same policy.
For the most part it’s a smart way to maintain control — granted, sometimes the control is minute, but when everything comes to head, and it usually does, I find that it’s helpful not to be completely surprised.
As I get older, I’m finding it harder and harder to keep things close to the vest. I’ve always had a keen sense of what is going on around me because for various reasons but mostly because I'm able to read people. I know when someone is lying to my face or telling me a half truth. And then there are the easy tells…when people go off to whisper – they never realize how guilty they look when they come back — that tell is still quite funny to me even today. Looks, nods broken word whispers are also tells I pick up very easily.
These days part of me is always itching to just grab people, slap them and tell them to cut the shit. But then, and I admit this is a little strange (unless you know me), I think about Cicely Tyson’s character in Diary of a Mad Black Woman — who late in the movie tells her daughter to let go of the anger [she had towards her husband] because as long as you keep it inside, “they have the power over you.”
I guess it’s not really that strange when you think about it. Let's face it, the only really value in keeping things close to the vest is to protect yourself from being hurt. But I guess what surprises/bothers me most is that I never expected to still find myself in positions (personally and professionally) where I have to practice this “policy” for lack of a better word after all this time.
But that's life…right?
Repartee Room 
Leave a comment