PostSecret is an amazing phenomena. An ongoing community art project where people mail in their (previously untold) secrets on handmade postcards has blossomed into a popular weekly-updated website and book. This in itself has an element of magic to it, but how this medium for telling secrets has affected its audience is the truly fantastic part. As artists submit their most hidden secrets of “regret, hope, funny experiences, unseen kindness, fantasy, belief, fear, betrayal, erotic desire, feeling, confession, or childhood humiliation”, the reader is at once arrested and enraptured. In the book and on the website, very similar secrets and obvious themes quickly emerge, but there is always a common thread that brings makes empathizing easy.

We all crave love and companionship.
We all have regrets and make mistakes.
We all have weaknesses and problems.
We all get angry or feel hopeless sometimes.

PostSecret gives glimpses into humanity that make us feel less alone. Even with the most alarming of secrets (some are truly heart wrenching and raw), there is a feeling of hope that there can be healing. And I suspect that I am not alone in relating to a great many of these confessions at some point in my existence.

The secrets are funny, sexual, sad, angry, confused, and every emotion in-between. They deal with the mundane, the dramatic, the criminal; like life, the secrets go in all directions. The artistic effort is sometimes as brief as a pen on an envelope, or as detailed as a frame-worthy multimedia piece of art. It’s a well chosen selection of the new postcards that are featured on the website every Sunday, preserved forever within its hardcovers. Here are a few selected gems:

• I got a parking citation and so did the car next to me. I replaced the ticket on the car next to me with mine. My ticket got paid. And the one I took? I mailed it to Post Secret.
• When I get angry I write bad words on my toaster strudel
• I don’t like to use foul language out loud… Instead, I write it down as many times as I can on a piece of paper whenever I feel the urge. After that, I immediately destroy the paper so no one will find it.
• I take extreme measures to poop in solitude.
• He’s been in prison for two years because of what I did. 9 more to go.
• I don’t eat dinner at your parents because their house is filthy.
• Once I was asked by a doctor if I was hearing voices. The voice inside my head shouted TELL HIM NO!
• I like it when animals attack trainers. I think they deserve it.
• Loving you saved my life.
• I hate people who “reply to all” on emails.
• Finding God is proving difficult
• I love one of my children

Before I had a chance to read the book I thought it would simply be entertaining. PostSecret now ranks up there with gift cards, in my mind, as one of those precious few gifts that is suitable for almost anyone. It would make a particularly excellent gift idea for someone who is having a tough time or who is too far away to give a big hug. Despite some of the heavier confessions, I’d also recommend it for a mature teenager, perhaps as a graduation present. It’s a quick read, but one you will return to over and over.

Available at eCampus and half.com.

Posted by Lauren in Unique
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