Exposed

We live in a glass house.

It has all the required alarms, bars, and security features expected of a nice house in Nairobi.

But it’s also bright, airy, and modern. It has huge windows, big open spaces, and lots of fun features.

The views looking out are beautiful, with plenty of flowering trees and exotic plants all around.

The problem is that the views looking in are also revealing.

During our first weeks in Nairobi, Britt affixed some sheets across our bedroom windows to offer a modicum of privacy. And before long, I had some plain muslin curtains made for all the bedrooms, and I rigged up various solutions for the bathroom windows.

You won’t be seeing any of them in House Beautiful.  But we can at least sleep, change, shower, and such without feeling like we’re putting on a show.

Nonetheless, and in spite of the fact that our house is pretty tucked away from things, we’ve had to let go of a lot of our old concepts of privacy.

To live as an expat in Nairobi is to be exposed.

At home, we are constantly surrounded by other people. There’s the 24 hour guard service, along with a bevy of gardeners, handymen, the housekeeper, and any number of repairmen called in to take care of endless problems with plumbing, electricity, leaks, and the like.

And then there’s the fact that we stick out due to our accents, origins, skin color, and overall foreign-ness.

Just as I was contemplating this, I noted a blog piece on NPR titled, What’s the Big Deal About Privacy? by Alva Noë. (http://www.npr.org/blogs/13.7/2013/08/16/212546316/whats-the-big-deal-about-privacy

The author points out that privacy is a recent phenomenon and a rare luxury enjoyed by the lucky few who can erect the spaces and seclusion to remain unobserved by others.

If you visit Roman ruins or George Washington’s home in Mount Vernon, Virginia, you can observe how using the bathroom was a communal experience. And I don’t just mean the public baths. Even the outhouses were multi-seaters. The concept of a private bed – or bedroom – is a modern one. And it remains out of reach for most of the world’s poor, who live squeezed together in tight spaces.

Privacy, argues the NPR blogger, is neither natural, nor for many, even desirable. Noë points to our desire to share our innermost thoughts, daily routines, and literal maps of every action we take, whether in an old-fashioned diary or through social media posts.

This blog is a clear example of that, I admit. And I have no expectations that anything I post on the great world wide web will remain in the least bit private.

Just this morning, there was an article in the Wall Street Journal about how the National Security Administration surveillance network can reach 75% of all Internet traffic in the US.

God help them. Most of it must be sooooooo uninteresting.

“Media and technology are opening us up the way we have, for most of our history, been open to other people and the world around us,” says Alva Noë.  “No man is an island. And most of us have no desire to be isolated.”

We have to re-adjust our notion of privacy, balancing it with questions such as, “Who really cares?” or “What have I got to hide.”

As a person living continents away from friends and family, I completely appreciate the connections and conveniences of social media. Even if it means giving up precious privacy.

And when it comes to living in a glass house, I think the main thing is not the loss of privacy, but the reminder that when doing so, it’s best not to throw stones.

Life in a Glass House - Radiohead

Once again, I'm in trouble with my only friend
She is papering the window panes
She is putting on a smile
Living in a glass house

Once again, packed like frozen food and battery hens
Think of all the starving millions
Don't talk politics and don't throw stones
Your royal highnesses

Well of course I'd like to sit around and chat
Well of course I'd like to stay and chew the fat
Well of course I'd like to sit around and chat
But someone's listening in.

Once again, we are hungry for a lynching
That's a strange mistake to make
You should turn the other cheek
Living in a glass house

Well of course I'd like to sit around and chat
Well of course I'd like to stay and chew the fat
Well of course I'd like to sit around and chat
But someone's listening in.