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PS LATER ADDITION (added on Feb 7 2021 as a NOTE regarding my "test post" below which proves I can be deceptive; however, I'm not an outright liar.) I WON'T DELETE my posts in this thread as I have done many times in other threads with topics I have "moved on" from. DON'T RESPOND TO THIS THREAD UNTIL you've seen my second post below, in which the whole truth of the situation is revealed: MY FAMILY is 3 people -- two mortals, myself and my wife, and one 6800-year-old Liberated Soul who has the secrecy policy that all the Souls do. ANOTHER REASON I won't delete anything for now is that the topic of secrecy to me seems to be more or less taboo, and it pleases me to see ANY discussion of it Any feedback on this will be appreciated. My wife and I have someone living with us in our house who will not reveal his place or country of birth; his accent gives us no clue; his English is very good so he has had exposure to either good English speakers or has had a lot of special lessons. This man has been in our house for about a year, and has helped me a lot. He has effectively been my guru from the start. However, he has a policy of secrecy about his background that is quite firm, and he tells me that everyone where he is from has the same kind of secrecy. It seems he has either: 1) a (irrational) fear that some kind of harm can come about by us knowing where he's from. I told him I would never be disrespectful or derogatory on the basis of where he's from; I'm no kind of fool like that. It's just I'm a curious person and would like to know a few basic details about someone who has been helping me so much. 2) certain knowledge of some certain disadvantage to him or us if we should know. Anyway, I decided to challenge the man, saying I question your secrecy regarding this matter of birthplace. I told him I question everything. Humor is important, so I spontaneously told him that you think it's none of my business where you were born; and added (what he already knew) that I was born in Aberdeen, Scotland, my joke to him being "and that's none of your business." (I consider this to be typical Scots humor, especially of the nuts ('feel beasts') in my family). It was a ridiculous statement and my wife and I had a good laugh about it. There are two types of secrets: good or bad. The commonest type, bad, essentially result in some kind of harm or abuse to the one the truth is kept from. The rare good secrets are about things that the person kept in the dark could not possibly properly understand or deal with constructively. It seems when hell freezes over he might tell me his country etc. of birth, and I won't hold my breath about it. But I am insatiably curious and felt he should be challenged on a policy I don't understand. If the man is not a criminal (and I know he isn't) what possible harm could come of him being open about said details? Thanks for listening.