Secrets

"As doctors we know everybody's secrets, their medical histories, sexual histories, confidential information that is as essential to a surgeon as a ten blade and every bit as dangerous. We keep secrets. We have to. But not all secrets can be kept..."
-Christina


Secrets are dangerous. They can eat us alive from the inside out. They can destroy families, relationships and lifetime friendships. They are not healthy.

Today I was talking with my dad about liquid oxygen and the bottles it is contained in. What an interesting creature.

On the inside of the cylinder there is a little generator thing that circulates the liquid O2. When the cylinder is not used, people can lose 1-2 percent a day. Because of this little generator thing, there must be a let-off valve so pressure doesn't build up too high.

There was a guy once who decided he didn't want to lose his liquid O2, so he took out the let-off valve. It was replaced with a steel something-or-other. He had not used the cylinder for a while and was cruising down the highway in his service truck (the cylinder was in the bed). Suddenly, there was a loud explosion, he started to swerve all over the road and crashed his truck.

The bottom of the cylinder rotted out and the built up pressure didn't help the situation. The guys truck broke in half and they couldn't find the cylinder.

Keep in mind, liquid O2 is the same stuff they put into the solid rocket boosters for space shuttles (500,000 gal-or-so of it). About three months later, two miles away a wheat farmer was harvesting and found the bottle in his field... woah!

Our secrets can produce the same results in our lives. If we do not have a let-off valve, the pressure will build and one day we are going to explode and it may not be pretty.


"In some ways, betrayal is inevitable. When our bodies betray us, surgery is often the key to recovery. When we betray each other, when we betray each other, the path to recovery is less clear...

"We do whatever it takes to rebuild the trust that was lost...

"And then there are some wounds, some betrayals that are so deep, so profound that there's no way to repair what was lost. And when that happens, there's nothing left to do but wait..."