Helping Many, Hurting One

In Elementary, a modern Sherlock Holmes tv series, Sherlock is a recovering drug addict, in addition to a mastermind. He attends meetings to help keep him sober. During these meetings, he shares with the group his own heartfelt insights about the road to recovery. In one episode, he discovers that someone is publishing his insights anonymously on a blog. He finds the person and tells him to stop - those are his private thoughts. The writer says that remembering Sherlock's words from the meetings has helped him not use drugs in times of weakness, and the blog has helped other people similarly. Sherlock says that may be, but he has come to trust the meeting place as a "vault" where his thoughts can be kept private. If that is no longer the case, then he can no longer attend the meetings. If he can't attend the meetings, he will be vulnerable to use again. Sherlock says, "I depend on every member of this group - including you - to care about my sobriety." Eventually, the writer takes down the site.

This scene affected me deeply, because I write people's stories in hopes that they may help a greater audience. The idea that sharing someone's story could, in fact, harm him/her while benefitting hundreds of others made me feel guilty, sad, and torn. Maybe this kind of sharing is selfish...I'm not actually honoring someone, but rather making him/her a spectacle for my own enjoyment (getting a rush out of writing something meaningful). On sensitive topics or particularly private people, I do take care to think about the person's privacy. However, it is possible for me to cross boundaries. The scene from the show made me question the ethics of something I love to do. It was a little jolting...that having a potential unethical passion can occur for me.