Project

That summer, Katie invited me to spend the weekend with her dad at their cabin. There were no messages coming from anyone, no buzz posts to read, just the three of us in the cabin and the hum of an ancient refrigerator. There was something beautiful about sharing things in the old way

Feeling the closeness that sharing our layers brought, Katie suggested we give total openness a shot. It meant offering our most painful wounds as a gift to one another, a testament that there was no corner of the soul so ugly as to remain unshared. Total openness seemed premature, I told Katie, not just for us but for everyone. Our culture was still figuring out the technology.

There’s no way to share the totality of yourself and still be loved, that secrets are the glue that holds relationships together. I think Katie and I weren’t meant to be a couple for the long haul; total openness just helped us find the end more quickly. We were strangers again.

Context: They broke up at a party. Weeks after trying "Total Openness"