Privacy

Once, soon after we started dating, Z noticed a small collection of folders on a bookshelf.  He made some comment about how tempted he was to look inside the one marked "Privacy."

I just smiled.  

Because of course I would never keep anything private in a folder marked "Privacy" -- that folder contained things relating to privacy.  It could have been articles about the concept of privacy, or how to maintain privacy online, etc.  As it happens, I was using that folder to store privacy notices I'd received from various institutions.  That is, legal notices about institutional privacy policies, which are about as impersonal as it gets.   

So I'm glad he didn't succumb to the temptation to look in that folder - he'd have been so disappointed!  Then again, had he actually wanted to know any of my deepest secrets, I suppose all he'd have to have done, at that time, was ask.  He never did, perhaps because of the secret he himself was keeping.