What's it to ya?

In life our experiences are shaped primarily by what we see, and hear, and feel in the moment.  Those things are often limited to what we can perceive directly, and are often occluded from the truth.  Revelations at a much later date can completely change those experiences, though they cannot change what happened in the moment, they can sour the memory and make things which were once happy, become sad.

Take for example the tradition of Santa Claus.  As children we grow up believing in the mythical man who lives at the North Pole who brings presents every year on Christmas Eve night for those who have been good all year.  We believe in the tale, and experience the wonder and awe and the magic of the celebration.  There eventually comes a time when we learn the truth, when we find out that Santa Claus is not real but a fabrication, a long held tradition, and something that is ultimately intended to deceive us, although with the best of motivations.  There is a dejection when we lose the magic, but for most at least the presents still continue, but with a greater degree of transparency.

This is an example of something quite harmless, which most of us will have experienced and hold no great bitterness or sorrow over.  Not all examples are so happy and lighthearted however.  The older we get the more these experiences become common place.  We begin to learn of the reality that the world is built on lies, and that power and deception are ultimately defined not by how many people believe the lie but how many people are party to the truth.  Knowing the truth becomes a weapon, and it can be wielded in many ways, from threatening to unmask the whole lie for the world to see, through to playing along and playing the game and using it to your advantage.

Who knows what, and about whom becomes a currency.  The knowledge is bartered in exchange for further knowledge.  Gossip is dealt like produce on a market stall traded for further gossip.  Lies that run deep can often be incredibly damaging, to people, places, companies, nations, and many others.  What you know, and whether or not you can express that knowledge then becomes the measure of how successful you are at this game.

So here's a question for you to contemplate, something which I cannot answer, by its very nature: what do you know, that nobody else does?  More importantly, what's it worth?