Closets, and what you keep in them, are close to the hearts of psychotherapists, human resources professionals, university and school teachers, the Criminal Records Bureau, anti-terrorist agencies, the police, the Secret Service, religious professionals, and novelists everywhere - or they should be. I would go so far as to say that what we keep locked up in our closets makes us most interesting and most complex as human beings. It can also destroy lives - ours, and the lives of those around us. But does it keep us from success? And when should that door be pried open and those bones come clattering out?
For most of us those skeletons consist of mistakes we have made, wrong decisions, failures, lies and deceptions, personal tragedies, anything we don't want to face as we get on with our lives.
I would argue that those kinds of skeletons in our closets need to be treated very delicately and sensitively. There is a cliche phrase most of us are familiar with: "what you don't know won't hurt you." But this is only partially true. In some cases I believe those skeletons should be kept firmly in place. The consequences of bringing them to light could be devastating, in several people's lives, and could have disastrous repercussions in the future. In other cases it's appropriate for them to be hauled out of storage and put on public display - before they dissolve into dust. It is the novelist's task, of course, to know about what's in the closet, and to choose what's going to happen to it. In reality, those professionals I have mentioned above base their careers upon the answer to the question at the end of my first paragraph.
The question of skeletons and success is dependent upon whether "success" requires total honesty. Looking at the world around us, I would say no it doesn't. In fact often enough it's a major disadvantage. Nevertheless, how long can such success last?
It can certainly go a long way. But the question remains. Consider this truth voiced by a character in Susan Howatch's novel "The Heartbreaker": "Then I thought how mysterous people were and how little anyone knew about what really went on in other people's lives."
This is a fact we all have to live with. And the question of whether our skeletons can keep us from success must be seen in that light.
S.C. Skillman
S.C. Skillman is the author of "Mystical Circles - a psychological thriller". Here you will find mysterious behaviour, events that keep you guessing, and people playing at cross purposes: "intense psychological drama in a beautiful setting". The novel is in stock with Amazon and can be downloaded on your Kindle. You can also visit the author's website to find out more. Click the secure payment gateway to buy a signed copy at http://www.scskillman.co.uk/.
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