Secrets

Do you have a secret that you're dying to tell but can't risk the consequences it might bring? If you do, you're not alone!

As I was preparing an in-class listening assignment for tomorrow using CNN videos, I came across something interesting. One of the Jeanne Moos' reports was about a guy who collects secrets.

This project, begun by Frank Warren in November 2004, gives people an opportunity to share things they could never say. The premise is simple: he invites people to anonymously send him their secrets. Here's the invitation:

You are invited to anonymously contribute your secrets to PostSecret. Each secret can be a regret, hope, funny experience, unseen kindness, fantasy, belief, fear, betrayal, erotic desire, feeling, confession, or childhood humiliation. Reveal anything - as long as it is true and you have never shared it with anyone before.

Create your 4-by-6-inch postcards out of any mailable material. If you want to share two or more secrets, use multiple postcards. Put your complete secret and image on one side of the postcard. Please do not email your secrets.

Tips:
Be brief - the fewer words used the better.
Be legible - use big, clear and bold lettering.
Be creative - let the postcard be your canvas.
Mail your secrets to:

PostSecret
13345 Copper Ridge Rd
Germantown, Maryland
USA 20874-3454

New secrets are posted on Sundays on his blog. There is no archive on his site; rather, museums and art galleries display the actual postcards in traveling-exhibit style. He also does fundraisers for the National Hopeline Network. The connection to this twenty-four-hour hotline for suicidal people or friends of suicidal people came as a result of receiving secrets.

For more information, especially about his motives and thoughts on the project, check out the The Observer's online article. There's also or his book entitled PostSecret : Extraordinary Confessions from Ordinary Lives.

And if you have a deep, dark secret that you need to get out, maybe you should consider joining the other 3000 people who have found this to be helpful.