Respect Privacy
“I want to be alone....” Each and every one of us has a God-
given right to respect, privacy, trust, honesty. But of all of
them, it is privacy that is the most sacrosanct, inviolate,
untouchable.
Yo u m u s t r e s p e c t y o u r p a r t n e r ’s p r i v a c y, a s s h e m u s t y o u r s. I f
you don’t, you have to question all those other things—trust,
respect, honesty—as well. If they are all missing, what you’ve
got there isn’t a relationship and, quite frankly, I don’t know
what it is, except it belongs in the morgue. So we’ll assume
you have a good and healthy relationship. This means you
have respect for your partner’s privacy. In all areas.
If your partner chooses not to discuss something with you,
then that is her right, and you do not have the right to:
- Wheedle
- Threaten
- Emotionally blackmail
- Bribe
- Withhold privileges
- Tr y a n d f i n d o u t b y u n d e rh a n d m e a n s a n d m e t h o d s
And no, charming your partner out of it counts as a no-no as
well. Privacy isn’t just about not opening someone’s mail or
listening to her telephone messages or reading her emails
when she’s not looking. Privacy is also about making sure your
partner can carry out her ablutions on her own—we all need a
certain degree of grace and dignity in our lives, and separate
bathroom activities is the standard bottom line actually.