Psst . . . I’ve Got A Secret January 10, 2014
Posted by nrhatch in Art & Photography, Blogging.comments closed
For 10 years, Frank Warren has been collecting and selling secrets.
He started the PostSecret Project in 2004 by handing out 3,000 postcards on the streets of D.C. and asking people to mail in their secrets.
Who knew there’d be people in D.C. with secrets?
Since then, he’s received a mountain of secrets (more than 1/2 a million) from all corners of the globe.
He shares a few secrets each week on PostSecret.com, and he’s written 5 books and started a traveling art exhibit. In short, he’s making a living selling other people’s secrets.
PostSecret postcards profess to share real life issues, struggles, sadness, challenges, victories, and humor.
But do they do what they profess to do?
When communication is both anonymous and public, don’t we lose the ability to discern whether the communication is honest and heartfelt?
Especially when taken “out of context.”
Some postcards communicate issues, struggles, and challenges that real people have faced. Others, no doubt, are blatant lies and fabricated fictions submitted by people wanting to see if their “secret” would be made “public” by being posted on the web or included in a book.
And those in the audience may never know which is which.
If a “secret” is nothing more than an attempt to address a “taboo” topic in a sensational way to obtain free air time, what have we gained by being on the receiving end?
When a sensational and titillating secret is NOT true, are those in the audience “voyeurs” or something else?
Puppets, perhaps?
Aah . . . that’s better!
Quotes to Ponder:
“And above all, watch with glittering eyes the whole world around you because the greatest secrets are always hidden in the most unlikely places. Those who don’t believe in magic will never find it.”
~ Roald Dahl
“Man is not what he thinks he is, he is what he hides.”
~ André Malraux
Spirit Lights The Way 