PostSecret founder: 'Listening and sharing can save lives'
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Frank Warren, founder and curator of PostSecret.com, the world’s largest advertisement-free blog, shared some of the one million secrets he has received in a Chadron State College Galaxy Series event at Memorial Hall Thursday night.
Secrets mailed to Warren at his Maryland home on anonymous postcards since 2004 run the gamut from humorous to heart-warming to poignant.
He started the project when he personally handed out 300 blank postcards to passersby at night after work on the sidewalks of Washington, D.C. Ten years later, he said he is negotiating for his archive to become part of the Smithsonian Museum’s postal collection.
“I created a safe, sharing place for others, but soon realized I needed it for myself, as well. There are two kinds of secrets, the ones we keep from others and ones we keep from ourselves. When you think we are keeping a secret, that secret is actually keeping you,” Warren said.
He said he has received messages written on items as diverse as a seashell, a potato and a one-pound bag of coffee.
“What strikes me more than the differences of the messages is their similarities. On the same day I will pull two postcards out of my mailbox with the same expression or comment from two different countries, written in different languages,” Warren said.
In an open, unassuming manner, he shared his family secrets related to violence, mental illness and depression.
“Suicide is America’s secret. Every day we make a decision to bury our secrets down deep in a box like a coffin or to share them. I want people to know help and hope is always available. Persevere. Get through it. On the other side, you'll be transformed,” Warren said.
He encouraged the audience members to share their secrets in an effort to connect with others and begin healing.
“Secrets are the currency of intimacy. In Hebrew, the word ‘secret’ means ‘come closer.’ Sharing our secrets can save lives,” Warren said.
Listening to others or making small gestures of caring can transform secrets from walls into bridges, Warren said.
“The children almost broken by the world become the adults who will change it. If I could go back and wipe out painful times, I wouldn't wipe them out because they brought me to where I am. We don't grow from accomplishments. We earn our soul from suffering,” Warren said.
—Tena L. Cook, Marketing Coordinator
Category: Campus News