Friday, September 19, 2008

secrets

Do you have a secret?

I saw a segment on CNN about a blog called "postsecret." People send postcards in the mail to this guy who chooses some, scans and then posts them. Some are disturbing, some make you sad or make you laugh, and others are more like warm thoughts. He’s written books containing these post secrets, and he gives presentations on them too. He engages the audience by challenging them to tell someone their secret “and become who you really are” (or something close to that). He told the audience that if the truth were known, just about everyone has a secret that would break your heart.

He has testimonials from people who say their lives were changed by putting their secret out there. It freed them in a way they never dreamed, and they’re so thankful. "We think we're keeping secrets, but the secrets are actually keeping us. With one courageous decision, you've freed a part of your life." One lady in the audience stood up and said she wanted to reveal her secret to everyone right there. They didn’t show us what she said, but it was compelling to me to think of someone doing that. I’m going to tell these 500 people the dark secret I’ve been carrying around for years. Then again, it'd be easier to tell a stranger, wouldn't it...?

I always think everyone around me is pretty much doing okay. But I suppose there’s a little bit of freak in all of us, that feeling of not fitting in or being alone or misunderstood. I would never have known that there are so many people, I’m talking a quarter-million, who have all these secrets--and those are only the ones who've sent in postcards!


I am so sheltered. Maybe that’s Your protection over me. My heart aches raw for the secrets I have been given—You know how much one lamb can handle. Just think of all those other lambs out there.......

4 comments:

Meals With Marscellia said...

That's a really different website. Even though there are some warm or funny ones, the disturbing ones stand out because they are haunting. I don't know how that man can read all those postcards.

Unknown said...

i've never heard of that site before, but it's definitely interesting. i can't imagine taking the time to do that but then i don't have a deep dark secret. i don't think i do anyways.

My Life as a MOM said...

We work with street kids, and you can't believe these kids stories. It makes grown men cry to see how scarred these young souls are by the things they've been through and the things they've done themselves but it's the quiet ones I'm most afraid for. I know they're keeping secrets from others. I just wonder about the secrets they're keeping from themselves.

Unknown said...

The secrets we keep, if only we could tell them. There is just something too valuable about the status quo though. We can't disturb the normal. It's just too delicate. There is a secret underneath every doorway, every abbreviation, every alleged story. Just listen and wait for it.