Some conversations belong to the people inside them.

GRATITUDE

WHAT THIS MEANS

What was said between two people has a context that cannot survive being reported. Tone, history, what came before, all of it disappears and what remains is a quotation that behaves differently in a new room. Some conversations are complete where they happened, and moving them damages both the words and the person who said them. That is true even when nothing was formally confidential.

Before repeating an exchange, ask whether the other person would recognize it as told. If not, keep it. What was said to you is not the same as what is yours to distribute.

A QUESTION TO SIT WITH

Which conversation have you repeated that was not yours to repeat?

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