I've Got a Secret

If you know me, you are probably aware of my obsession with PostSecret (www.postsecret.com). It started out as a community art project where people were encouraged to send in postcards that held a secret that they had never shared with anyone. The small community art project has totally exploded. There is now a book (with another one on the way, I believe), the website which is updated every Sunday, traveling exhibits, and the postcards were the basis for the video "Dirty Little Secrets" by The All American Rejects.

A lot of people comment on the postcards they see on the site and most of the time, it's something along the lines of, "I thought I was the only one who felt this way, the only one this had happened to, the only one who knew what this felt like." I think more than anything, even when so many of the cards talk about being alienated and lonely and alone, it reminds you that you aren't. Someone out there feels the same way. It doesn't solve big problems, but it does give you a small connection, even if it's just while you're reading the card. I think for some people, that might be enough to save them.

Anyway, that's why I love the site, because I constantly find postcards that could have been written by me. Like the one on this blog, for instance. Now, I don't have 18 messages. In fact, I don't have any messages, but I do have a text and some emails that I wonder if I'll ever be able to get rid of. And like the secret-keeper says, I don't necessarily read them a lot, but I know they are there and that they're a testimony that there was something between us and it was real and wonderful. I don't know. I should probably get rid of them. Maybe it's a reminder I shouldn't have, but right now, it's a connection I can't break. All things in their own time, I guess.