lederhosen

1)You've said that there are people whom you would trust with your life. How many of them would you trust with your secrets?

It depends on the type of secret. Most of mine are "ask-me" secrets, meaning that anybody who asks me a straight question will get a straight answer. These are 'secrets' only inasmuch as many people might be bothered by/not interested in the answers, so I try not to advertise to people who aren't interested in knowing - trust isn't the issue here.

There are a few things that are other people's secrets, or shared secrets ('kissing and telling'). There, obviously, the bounds depend on what the other person is happy with, though I make it clear to them in advance that what I know, Rey knows. There has been one occasion, and only one, where I felt the other party had forfeited any obligation I might have had towards them.

Other than that... this is mostly a hypothetical question, since there are very few things I count as real secrets - that sort of thing just seems to be more trouble than it's worth. Anybody on my LJ friends list gets about 95% of my 'secrets', and probably about 85% more than they want to know.

But for the very small fraction of real, deep, dark secrets... that would be

reynardo,

silverblue,

brandtotter,

jazzmasterson and

harliquinn. (No offence intended to anybody else - it takes long acquaintance and a lot of thought before I put anybody in this category.)

2)Do you believe that other peoples perception of you differs very greatly from how you perceive yourself?

Tricky. My self-perception varies quite a bit from one day to the next. I suspect on my good days I'm not too far from how others perceive me.

3)Have you ever sacrificed your self-respect to avoid making a scene? If so, was it worth it?

Yes, more than once. I'm sure there must have been some occasion when it was worth it, but I can't remember any. I try not to get into that sort of position these days.

4)Do you think that pride ever more important than honesty?

If I had to pick one I'd go for honesty, but (at least in my life) the two don't often come into conflict. I find it hard to be proud of dishonesty, or ashamed of honesty.

(BTW, I'm not counting the brand of "honesty" whose only purpose is to hurt others. I don't have much time for the idea of 'white lies', but nor do I think everything that's true needs to be shouted from the rooftops. There are times when the truth, selectively quoted, can be more dishonest than simple silence.)

5)If you could go back in time to tell yourself one thing, what would it be?

"You're not as unlovable as you think." (Not that I'd be likely to listen...)