Skeleton in the Closet

“If you can’t get rid of the skeleton in your closet, you’d best teach it to dance.” – George Bernard Shaw

We all have a skeleton in the closet. Those skeletons represent things we are ashamed about; things that demand to stay hidden. Skeleton in the closet is an idiom used to describe a hidden fact about someone, which, if exposed, would be harmful to the perceptions others had of them. As history has it, the idiom was unearthed with the idea that literal skeletons or bodies were kept in the closet, which, like other horrifying secrets, would ruin ones reputation if found, perhaps referring to doctors who would make a little extra by selling patients dead bodies to university science departments, such as in the horror comedy I Sell the Dead (2008) or as mentioned in the book Devil in the White City (2003), a tale about the real life exploits of the serial killer Dr. H. H. Holmes. The saying has been documented as being used as far back as 1816 in England, plenty of time for a secret to shed its skin, organs, and pulp and become on a skeleton itself, one with perhaps an even darker origin that the one mentioned.

A skeleton in the closet could be something terrible such as a felony crime. Maybe you robbed a bank and got away with it. Even though you’re not rotting away behind steel bars, there still remains a skeleton with a sack of gold clutched in its rib cage, the remains of guilt in having broken the law, rotting away in your closet, festering with a guilt that grows daily. A skeleton in the closet might be something small, too. A lie you told, perhaps, or a cookie you took from a cookie jar without asking.

Felipe Femur puts a face on that skeleton. With his kind eyes and smile, he invites us all to wander out of our comfort zones and confront the demons and made us feel we had to stow a skeleton away in the first place. He asks that if the secret proves too shameful or too dangerous to reveal, at least question why it’s there in hopes of laying it down to rest. And if it really refuses to budge, make it work for you and for others for the greater good. If nothing else, learn from that skeleton in your closet. You only have so many hangers, so much room. De-clutter. Dig up the dead, your guilt, your shame, your toxic secrets, and give them a proper burial, so that you may live life as free as the innocent child does.

Do it for you!