Left Untold

          We all have our secrets. Things left untold. Secrets are kept for many reasons. Maybe the are left untold because they will hurt someone, or maybe if they are told they will be unbearable for us, or to painful for us. Franky, they may not be told because they are just embarrassing. These words, thoughts, stories, and experiences are locked away deep within our heart and the person who holds those secrets is the only person who has the power to release them. I haven't really thought about it before but maybe the reason secrets are so appealing is because it is one thing that we have absolute control over, it is something that can never be taken away from us unless we choose to let it be. 

           I have come to realize that there comes a time when some secrets become to much to hold inside, we want to tell someone but at the same time we don't want anyone we know to know our insecurities, or our vulnerabilities. I think that was the idea when Frank Warren began Post Secret in 2005. I was first introduced to Post Secret my junior year in high school when my exchange student Bec told me about it and showed me her Post Secret book. I was immediately intrigued. This guy Frank Warren who had many secrets of his own holding him down, decide to hand out pre-addressed postcards to random people on the street with simple instructions: "Tell your secret anonymously. Your secret can be a regret, fear, betrayal, desire, confession or childhood humiliation. Reveal anything- as long as it is true and you have never shared it with anyone before." Not long after he gave out 300 initial envelopes, his mailbox was becoming packed with more and more secrets. Some were funny, some were deep and some were sad. Who would have ever thought that the idea of revealing secret could be so popular? It must be the fact that you can tell your secret and no one can trace it back to you, so in a way it is still a secret. As the secrets started pouring in, Frank began to publish them on a blog for people to read, and soon he made a book full of people's secrets.

        I had the pleasure of seeing Frank Warren speak last week when he came and gave a talk at SLU. It was a really good talk! In the span of a hour or so the room was filled with laughter, sorrow, happiness and sadness as secret were both read by Frank and told by members of the audience. (I was really tempted to get up and tell a secret, but of course I wimped out...) Since, I wimped out and couldn't tell a secret in person, I got a postcard that is soon to hold my deepest secret that I have never told and probably never will tell anyone on it. Who knows, maybe you will see it some day on the website or in a book. But the beauty of it is, that you will never know it was my secret. Thrilling right? It makes you want to send in a secret of your own. If you need some inspiration here is the postsecret blog: postsecret.com. Its worth the read.