Things You Can't Talk About

     I was thinking about this idea all day yesterday, and then again this morning.  I considered just putting the title of the post up and leaving the post blank.  Ha!  The idea runs parallel to the words you don't hear anymore and the I forgot where I was for a second posts from a while back.   Because along with words you shouldn't say whilst at work, because it's work, there are just topics that you shouldn't talk about.  Most of them are obvious- the three taboos: politics, religion, and sex.  But then there are also things that are just off limits pretty much all of the time.  They're just too personal, too embarrassing, or too gross.  Or often all three.
     It could be something simple- maybe you finally blew your nose hard enough to get every last bit of bloody snot out of there.  You're clear and breathing better than ever.  It feels great.  But it's not really something you can talk about.  Maybe you can tell your partner, sig other, or very BFF.  A co-worker would be out of the question, and that type if info would probably kill a fledging relationship, romantic or otherwise.  So you feel great, but you can't really tell people why; that's sad.
     Also, on the flip side, sometimes you don't feel great, and people are concerned, but the thing that has brought about the not-greatness falls into that personal, gross, and/or embarrassing category.  Maybe you did something weird while shaving, your dinner consisted of Oreos and red wine, or you ran out of something you should never run out of and embarrassing hysterical hijinks ensued.  I'm mentioned a few tamer things to set the mood, but when you start ramping these things up, they quickly devolve into things you just cannot talk about.  I've often told close friends of my dinners of Oreos and red wine- that one isn't terrible, but the other two are just not great topics of conversation.  You can't be honest with concerned co-workers when they ask about your particularly haggard appearance.  You have to tell them "oh, I just woke up on the wrong side of the bed" rather than the truth- you woke up on the foot of your bed wrapped up like a mummy in blankets surrounded by empty wine bottles and covered in what you really hope is chocolate, but the details are hazy.  
     Sometimes I think about how liberating it would be to just be frank with people all of the time. 

Wow, you're in a good mood.
Yeah, I just had a BM the size of my arm.  I feel great. 

Then I consider how liberating it would be to lose my job and all of my friends over such frankness.  That's not the good kind of liberating.  There are just some things that, no matter how close you think you are to someone, you probably shouldn't talk about.