will open up to us

Because I travel frequently, I have a regular driver that takes me to and from the airport. She's reliable and courteous and a safe driver. Her one character flaw (at least the one I see) is that she is a compulsive liar. The first several times I used her, she kept telling me conflicting stories of the things that happened in her life. Now as someone who frequents cabs and car services, I understand why deceit might be the first option in conversation. I used to lie to cab drivers all the time whenever they picked me up and asked me what I did for a living (circus clown and speechwriter for Al Gore were my two favorite random responses). I saw this as a matter of personal security -- these people knew where I lived; why would I also tell them what I did for a living? Anyway, even with a regular driver, I am averse to getting too personal with what is going on in my life. So usually our conversations are fairly generic.

This morning, as a favor to the driver, I shared a ride to the airport. And the co-passenger -- apparently another regular for my driver -- spent half the ride chatting it up with the driver as if they were good friends. And sharing intimate details about where she was going and why and who she was seeing and her family and how she was feeling about seeing her mother, etc. It would be one thing to share all this with your ride to the airport, but to do it with a random stranger sharing the ride with you?

Maybe confession really is good for the soul. I don't know what is inside us that makes us want to divulge our lives to others so freely. Although come to think of it, why else be on Facebook?