I’ll Keep You My Dirty Little Secret | Una Farrell

Postsecret’s development from a small blog into an online community is a source of inspiration, argues Una Farrell. Frank Warren has created a community where complete strangers feel safe and comfortable to reveal their innermost secrets. Post Secret has developed from a blog into an online and global community. Amazingly, it is a space where people feel secure enough to reveal things about themselves which they never would have dreamed of revealing.“Post Secret is an ongoing community art project where people mail in their secrets anonymously on one side of a homemade postcard” Each Sunday the blog is updated with just a few of the many postcards sent to Frank each week. These postcards come from all over the world and all resonate a deeply personal and emotional level of humility. The anonymity of the process allows people to be more open and honest the community created. The secrets reveal peoples most intimate fears, hopes, dreams, regrets, confessions and desires. Some can be deeper than others but the effect is the same. No secret is more important than another. Each secret has meaning to the person who sent it and also manages to reach out to the hundreds of thousands of followers who read the secrets each week.Frank tours the world speaking at PostSecret events which inspire millions. In these talks Frank tells of all the stories he has received since 2004. The lives that have been affected and the lives that have been saved. Countless secrets and stories reveal individuals struggles with difficult issues such as depression and grief. It cannot be determined how many peoples lives have been saved through this PostSecret project. The act of admitting your fears and thoughts in this space creates the beginning of recovery for these individuals. They say that admitting a problem is the first step to solving it and the ability to admit your secrets in this anonymous space gives people this confidence.The inspiration found from these individuals abilities to admit these secrets gives confidence to others and so the effect snowballs. Even if a person’s secret is not printed on the blog the mere act of writing it down and sending it is in itself an admittance of this secret. This admittance is like a weight lifted from a person. Even if the secret simply expresses their undying love for someone, this is their way of expressing this emotion because they may feel too afraid to say it in person.We all keep secrets. It is human nature to do so. We keep things to ourselves which we are embarrassed to admit for fear of the reaction we will receive. We fear the judgment which will ensue when we declare our secrets. The way society has brought us up has cautioned us to not reveal certain things. Our lives are not meant to be open books. We keep secrets as tests of loyalty and trust. In sharing a secret with someone we are admitting that we trust this person enough to tell them this intimate detail of our life. This trust is what exists in the PostSecret Community.Acceptance is the key to the success of this project. The project brings together unlikely people in their holding of similar secrets. People reading the secrets may find themselves reading a secret which is so familiar they may believe that it is written about them or to them. Even those who do not have the courage to admit their secrets can find hope and inspiration in others courage in admittance.Inspiration is another key feature of this project. Frank has created an inspirational project which, each Sunday, inspires its readers. Each secret, no matter how small, has the ability to inspire millions. So in respect of this project I encourage each and every one of you to share a secret. No matter how insignificant you may think it is, you have kept it a secret for a reason. Tell your mother, father, sibling, best friend. Send it to Frank if you feel you can’t tell anyone close to you. We need not be afraid or ashamed of our own desires, thoughts, beliefs or experiences. “Secrets can remind us of the countless human dramas, of frailty and heroism playing out silently in the lives of people all around us.” - Frank Warren