Box of Mystery

I’ll bet you have. Be it at work, or in a relationship, I’ll put money — cold hard money (non-sequentially serial numbered, used 20 dollar bills if that helps) — on the fact that there have been numerous moments in your life when you really, really wish you could have known what someone was really thinking as opposed to what they were saying.

But let’s consider for a moment, what would it be like to be able to read someone’s mind? And would you really want to? Would it be a curse, or a blessing? Suddenly, your life would be like the film Liar Liar in reverse: you’d hear the words from someone, but you’d know what they really thought before the brain-to-mouth translation hardware kicked in. Personally, that strikes me as a curse, not a blessing. My mind is a private place and my thoughts are mine – as a person, I get to choose what I share with others.

Let’s just look at just a handful of the thoughts I’ve had today about people that I’m delighted that they were not aware of: I’ve clocked several very cute bottoms, I’ve stared at a couple of fantastic cleavages, I’ve thought several people were being idiots but kept it to myself and I’ve had “impure” thoughts about two members of the opposite sex (a complete mental undressing and position analysis in the case of one).

My brain has a specific department that filters thoughts into several categories: those that must never be said, those that can be said with adjustments and those that can be said verbatim without alteration. I’ve known people who simply don’t have this department; and it doesn’t allow for much wisdom to be accumulated as you’re always too busy saying words without thinking of the consequences of those words: no listen, no learn.

The only place any of us have true privacy is in our own minds.

Treasure it. Think something naughty now — safe in the knowledge that no-one can ever know what you thought. Go on, treat yourself…