An email, intended for one person, was accidentally sent to another. And it happened to be about that other person. The resulting conversation did not go well.

Word gets around. Make an off-hand and critical comment about a co-worker, and that co-worker will hear about it. The whisper-down-the-lane of the elementary school yard is alive and well . . . everywhere.

With electronic memory that seems to have a half-life of centuries, private information doesn’t feel so private. As a result, we must redouble our efforts to safeguard information. Even more, as another example of the way the Kingdom of Heaven cuts against the grain of the world, we must affirm the abiding spiritual reality that we, indeed, live publicly.