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Possibly the best Website... ever
Former Member
Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
in General Chat
I didn't really want to put this into Waste Time because I don't believe that it is a waste of time to read it.
I have looked at this site every week for months now and I've be saddened, inspired, outraged, humbled... just by reading what other people think about.
Post Secret
I would recommend it to anyone.
The authors comments in his own words:
When I told my father I was collecting secrets from strangers for an art project, he didn’t know what to think. I tried to explain how the thousands of secrets that had been mailed to me were more than mere confessions. They could be beautiful, funny, sorrowful, inspiring.
"But, Frank," he asked, "why are you soliciting secrets from strangers, and why would anyone tell you a real secret?"
I invited my father to fly out for a PostSecret art exhibit in Washington, D.C., where hundreds of the postcards were on display. More than 15,000 people came to see the secrets, and my father was there, day after day, to hear many of their transformative stories. Some people told me they recognized a hidden part of themselves on a stranger’s postcard. Others shared personal experiences of how talking about a painful secret had helped heal a lifelong relationship.
The exhibit came to an end and I took my father back to the airport to catch a red-eye flight home. During our drive we passed through a long dark stretch of highway when my father broke the silence by asking me, "Do you want to know my secret?" He bravely recounted a traumatic childhood experience. When he finished, we had a true talk that gave me a richer understanding of my father and recast our relationship.
• • •
For A Lifetime of Secrets, the fourth PostSecret book, I've selected postcards that show how secrets can reveal a momentary impulse or haunt us for decades and arranged them by age to follow the common journey we all take through childhood, adolescence, adulthood, maturity. Stretched over a full lifespan, the secrets expose the meaningful ways we change over time, and the surprising ways we don't.
The postcards narrate childhood stories that have never been spoken; they voice the guarded confessions of our parents and grandparents. They confirm that our rich interior lives are not defined by how old we are, and that with aging comes not only loss but also the possibility of grace and wisdom.
The following two secrets arrived in my mailbox the same week. The postmarks on each card were different, but when I posted them together on the PostSecret website (www.postsecret.com) they seemed as though they could have been written by the same person at two different points in her life.
I am a junior in high school. I have good friends and a loving family. I am smart. I am a good athlete and musician. But I would trade all that in if it meant I would be beautiful.
I spent my high school years believing I was UGLY. I just went through a photo album that had pictures of me over the last 20 years. Turns out I was/am kind of cute. No more wasting time on thinking otherwise.
• • •
When I give PostSecret presentations at college campuses, my hope is that people I have never met will be inspired to change their lives through the secrets and stories being shared. Not long ago, at one of my talks, it was my life that was changed, and the secret that inspired me came from a stranger in the front row.
I began my presentation by handing out blank postcards to everyone in the auditorium. I invited each person to anonymously write down a secret on a card and then pass it on. For the next hour, the postcards circulated and were read silently multiple times. At the end of my talk, I asked if anyone would like to stand and read the secret they were holding at that moment. A man in the front row stood up and haltingly read:
I wish I could apologize to my younger brother for the way I treated him growing up.
He sat down and exchanged a long look with the young man next to him. After more volunteers read aloud some of the other secrets that had been passed around, I collected all the cards. The man in the front row handed me the postcard he had read from, and the two men walked out together.
His postcard was blank.
I have witnessed many times how the courage of sharing a secret can be contagious. When I realized that the man had been pretending to read someone else’s secret and that the person he had left with was likely his brother, I was inspired.
Growing up, I was not an ideal older brother. As an adult, I have wished for an opportunity to apologize for some of my actions but did not want to open old wounds. I have not shared this secret with my brother . . . until now.
--Frank Warren
I have looked at this site every week for months now and I've be saddened, inspired, outraged, humbled... just by reading what other people think about.
Post Secret
I would recommend it to anyone.
The authors comments in his own words:
When I told my father I was collecting secrets from strangers for an art project, he didn’t know what to think. I tried to explain how the thousands of secrets that had been mailed to me were more than mere confessions. They could be beautiful, funny, sorrowful, inspiring.
"But, Frank," he asked, "why are you soliciting secrets from strangers, and why would anyone tell you a real secret?"
I invited my father to fly out for a PostSecret art exhibit in Washington, D.C., where hundreds of the postcards were on display. More than 15,000 people came to see the secrets, and my father was there, day after day, to hear many of their transformative stories. Some people told me they recognized a hidden part of themselves on a stranger’s postcard. Others shared personal experiences of how talking about a painful secret had helped heal a lifelong relationship.
The exhibit came to an end and I took my father back to the airport to catch a red-eye flight home. During our drive we passed through a long dark stretch of highway when my father broke the silence by asking me, "Do you want to know my secret?" He bravely recounted a traumatic childhood experience. When he finished, we had a true talk that gave me a richer understanding of my father and recast our relationship.
• • •
For A Lifetime of Secrets, the fourth PostSecret book, I've selected postcards that show how secrets can reveal a momentary impulse or haunt us for decades and arranged them by age to follow the common journey we all take through childhood, adolescence, adulthood, maturity. Stretched over a full lifespan, the secrets expose the meaningful ways we change over time, and the surprising ways we don't.
The postcards narrate childhood stories that have never been spoken; they voice the guarded confessions of our parents and grandparents. They confirm that our rich interior lives are not defined by how old we are, and that with aging comes not only loss but also the possibility of grace and wisdom.
The following two secrets arrived in my mailbox the same week. The postmarks on each card were different, but when I posted them together on the PostSecret website (www.postsecret.com) they seemed as though they could have been written by the same person at two different points in her life.
I am a junior in high school. I have good friends and a loving family. I am smart. I am a good athlete and musician. But I would trade all that in if it meant I would be beautiful.
I spent my high school years believing I was UGLY. I just went through a photo album that had pictures of me over the last 20 years. Turns out I was/am kind of cute. No more wasting time on thinking otherwise.
• • •
When I give PostSecret presentations at college campuses, my hope is that people I have never met will be inspired to change their lives through the secrets and stories being shared. Not long ago, at one of my talks, it was my life that was changed, and the secret that inspired me came from a stranger in the front row.
I began my presentation by handing out blank postcards to everyone in the auditorium. I invited each person to anonymously write down a secret on a card and then pass it on. For the next hour, the postcards circulated and were read silently multiple times. At the end of my talk, I asked if anyone would like to stand and read the secret they were holding at that moment. A man in the front row stood up and haltingly read:
I wish I could apologize to my younger brother for the way I treated him growing up.
He sat down and exchanged a long look with the young man next to him. After more volunteers read aloud some of the other secrets that had been passed around, I collected all the cards. The man in the front row handed me the postcard he had read from, and the two men walked out together.
His postcard was blank.
I have witnessed many times how the courage of sharing a secret can be contagious. When I realized that the man had been pretending to read someone else’s secret and that the person he had left with was likely his brother, I was inspired.
Growing up, I was not an ideal older brother. As an adult, I have wished for an opportunity to apologize for some of my actions but did not want to open old wounds. I have not shared this secret with my brother . . . until now.
--Frank Warren
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Comments
They have a version of it on LiveJournal as well, but it's not NEARLY as good. Full of "I'm like 12 and I'm really sad and emo because nobody's ever kissed me OHICRY" crap.
yeah i agree, the livejournal one is so shite, its full of like pictures of fall out boy and the secret 'they're all i live for...' etc etc.
the actual post secret is amaze though. i wanna get the book.
Does this artists not know the meaning of personal? Mabye somethings are meant to be a secret. Yea, I could chip in with mine:
Even though it was wrong, I liked it and still to this day miss it
But what businesss does anybody else have knowing. It jsut seems, althougha l ot of them are about exploring the hidden part of the human psyché, some of them are just attracting gossips.
I mean, to be in the fathers shoes, to see your son produce a 'beautiful' (by this, I mean something that can truly make you think about being human, about how it is more than you can contemplate on your own - that we are a collective species and you won't expreience every feeling everyone else will but are capable of empathy and being able to share in those exxperiences by sharing stories - or secrets) exbhibit expression all facets of humanity that are never really seen - I saw one for example, about child abuse, where the girl said she enjoyed being raped by her step-father, even though she testified in court against him - it's really sickening to think then the moment you reveal your innermost, most intimaite and secret and perhaps shameful (i knwo for abuse this is often the case), experience, then to have it broadcast to the web to further publicise the artist...
Should be slapped. Yea your art is your life, but show a lil' respect. I dunno, maybe I'm prejudging. His dad is probably ok with it (or else he'd be living on the street now instead of his parents basement
The thing is, though, it has been going on for so long that if you post a secret to him you know what is going to happen - there is a disclaimer and people are aware of the fact that their postcards could end up on the internet. If you don't want it published, don't send it.
Look at the original post
And I don't think the guy would be inconsiderate enough to not ask his father whether or not he could mention the conversation.
I think ShyBoy (and you
Did he? I don't think that he's told anyone.
As for you other point. How do you think that people know tha tPost Secret exists? Could it be because they have seen that he displays the postcards on the 'net or in a display? If so, don't you think that everyone who sends him something knows that it could be used for that prupose?
What about understanding that sharing a secret can, for many people, be a relief...?
But that wasn't my point, sorry - I think I'm confusing people here.
My point was - that the secret his father told him in confidence, he then goes on about it. He doesn't say what the secret it, just a 'traumatic childhood experience', but to me it just seems like he's taking liberties. I admire the website and find it interesting - that's all fair and good.
If I had told someone I had a personal secret that I'd kept hidden for my whole life, then they told everyone that I told them of a traumatic experience or something, it would hurt me. even if they didn't say what it was, just the disclosure that there is a secret is a big thing.
I just can't help but feel though, in the way it was written, the artist was using it partly for his own gain. Taking something private, sharing it with the public through his blog, that relates to his exhibition, so more people can have an emotional reaction (surely the aim of an artist?) and link with his work.
But as I see it, a secret belongs to the person whose secret it is, and if it is shared with you you don't have the right to tell people the contents or to even tell people you know the secret, unless you've been given permission.