A Brother Asks: Restrictions on Accepting Secrets

 
 
Brother: Coach, do you have any restrictions that you place on offered information when a Brother tells you that he wants to share something with you Chest to Chest.
 
Coach: Yes,  I certainly do.
 
Brother: What are they?
 
Coach: I have a two simple policies that help keep me legally, morally, ethically and spiritually safe.  Here they are in the form of bottom and top line behaviors:

1. Bottom Line (what to avoid) - Don't tell me anything that you know would get me in trouble or cause harm if I didn't share the information with the proper authorities or those who would be impacted negatively by withholding such information.
2. Top Line (what to shoot for) - Share with me only those things that you know I would have only good conscience keeping in my chest.

Brother: Interesting... how did you arrive at these policies?
 
Coach: I derived them as a consequence of examining in depth the roles played out by those twelve remaining Fellow Crafts within the Hiramic Legend.
 
Brother: The twelve remaining Fellow Crafts?
 
Coach: Yes.  Those Fellow Craft who remained after the other three ruffians followed through on their collective conspiracy.
 
Brother: The other three ruffians?
 
Coach: Yes.  All the Fellow Crafts within the legend were Ruffians.  It was they who followed through on the collective conspiracy, not the other twelve.
 
Brother: You said "Collective Conspiracy"  What does that mean?
 
Coach: They were all involved in the conspiracy together.  It was only the three ruffians who followed through on the conspiracy who did the physical damage. 
 
Brother: Wow!  I had not thought of it that way.

Coach: Many do not.  Furthermore, it was the remaining twelve ruffians who came clean on their part and after they heard of the missing Grand Master. And this only when they feared something awful had happened to him.  Until that moment they were okay with keeping the conspiracy a secret.

Brother: You were careful to say "physical damage".  Was there other damage that was not physical?

Coach: Yes.  There was damage done to trust; the trust one should have between Brothers. 
 
Brother: They violated that trust by keeping the conspiracy a secret?

Coach: Indeed they did.  They knowingly kept secret an extortion plot that was intended to cause damage. 

Brother: Is this why King Solomon told them they they would be held to account for the Grand Master's death had they not found and brought the other three ruffians to justice?

Coach: What do you think?

Brother: I think it was.

Coach: Me as well.

Brother: Do you believe the Grand Master might have lived had they not kept the conspiracy within their chests?

Coach: Perhaps.  But that's not the point.  The Grand Master had to die because the allegory wouldn't work the way it does if he had lived.

Brother: That makes sense.  But how did you arrive at your insights?
 
Coach: It was precisely the fact that they kept information in their chests that harm was done to someone who would not have been harmed had they revealed the conspiracy appropriately and in a timely fashion. They had to do this for the point to be made!

Brother: So, that's the point?

Coach: Yes!  Don't keep things in your chest that could harm others if not known.  Furthermore, don't commit to keeping information secret that could and will harm when not shared.

Brother: What about your other policy? 

Coach: What about it?

Brother: How did you arrive at that?

Coach: It's a complement to the first.  The first is incomplete without it.

Brother: How so?

Coach: Well, if I don't want to know information that would be entrusted to me for all the wrong reasons, wouldn't I want to be entrusted with information that should be held in confidence for all the right reasons?

Brother: Well, sure.  That makes perfect sense.

Coach: Good.  There are two types of information shared as secrets: That which can harm myself or others if held back and that which can harm myself or others if let out.

Brother:  Ah! I get it!  The former is an unholy alliance; the latter is a sacred trust.

Coach: Indeed!  And I only want to be involved in the receiving end of the latter; the former simply doesn't sit well with me at all and for the right reasons too.
 
Brother: But what if holding back information prevents someone from facing the harm brought about by the consequences of their actions being known?

Coach: That falls under the heading of unholy alliance.

Brother: How so?

Coach: Someone who withholds information to aid others in outrunning accountability is engaging in either illegal, unethical, immoral or non-spiritual actions.

Brother: That makes sense.  The harm is self-inflicted and withholding information only draws things out and delays the inevitable.

Coach: Yes, and when others are involved, it delays proper justice, thus harming those involved who deserve justice.

Brother: There's a lot to this sharing secrets that I had not considered.

Coach: There sure is.  Talks like this help bring things to light and invite us to consider things more in depth.

Brother: Indeed!