Hidden existences are attractive. The Wizard of Oz speaking into a microphone. The structural
system of the Statue of Liberty. A secret handshake. The yakuza.

Some artists deal with these ideas. Andy Goldsworthy can touch on them: so can Michael Heizer.
For a long time, "sexual deviants" perfected the art of hiding their reality, sneaking around cities,
rendezvousing in secret to practise their lifestyles. Now that all forms of romance are becoming
openly discussed, to me they lose their desirability, or their compelling nature.

Archeology is simultaneously wonderful and vulgar. Wonderful in that it explores the ancient
existance of man, digs up cities, and learns the secrets of the past. Vulgar in that it passes its
knowledge on. It opens up the secrets, and makes them known. After the past is excavated, it
loses its secrecy -- it becomes known, discussed, and plain.

Therein lies the paradox: in order to satisfy your curiosity, you end up destroying the attractiveness
of the thing. To appreciate a secret you betray its secrecy by learning it. And if you should pass
that knowledge on, then any shred of its secrecy is destroyed -- who knows how far that "secret"
will go now?

Your only option, then, is to find a way to enjoy a secret without learning it. Not necessarily in a
Zen idea of 'one hand clapping,' but perhaps to create a secret. Creating the secret does not
require broadening its circle of knowledge, but establishing it. In fact, it is possible that this
course of action is the best/only way to truly appreciate the hidden without revealing it. Before
your action, it was not hidden or known, it simply was not.
Afterwards it is, and is hidden.

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