(My) Postsecret

Ever since I found this site where you can send your secret anonymously to Frank Warren back in 2005, I visit it almost on weekly basis, sometimes more that once a week, just to see some email comments on it. Wondering who sent those secret, why did they do that, how are they doing now. At the end of last month, all of the sudden there was no update on Sunday. I started to wonder about Frank, I hope he is ok. It's strange, I have no idea who he is, yet there's concern about him from my part. A connection. Funny how blog can create that.Then, I noticed the 'comment section' was turned on with hundreds of comments about why there was no update, why the comment section is available, and of course about the published secret.

The following week, he turned off the comment section and posted a note explaining why he was absent, and mentioning that the site will go on for another 130 weeks. About 2600 secrets left for us to see, I think.

Out of about 1000 postcard he received on weekly basis, he put up about 20. Just 2%. How did he do that? Did he choose it based on the art or on the secret, or a bit of both? After all you can't post a 'I sleep with my whatever' card every week. How did he select which cards go online, which ones go to one of the books and which ones go to the exhibitions. He has, to date, more than 100.000 postcards to choose from.

One day early last year, on one of my creative mood I decided to create a postcard and sent it to Frank. I did it in half and hour. Deep down, I want to see it published. I know, weird huh? What's the point of having a secret if you want to see your secret published where millions of people can see? I dont know how to explain it, it's like I want to prove to myself that I can do something creative & hopefully positive with my secret. After about a month of religiously checking the site I came to the conclusion it was not interesting enough to be published. I.let.it.go.

But guess what? Several weeks ago, on one damp Sunday morning I logged on to the site and that card of mine was staring back at me. It was intimate, yet foreign. I was proud, yet ashamed. I was curious how others think about it, if people who knows me knew it was mine, I wonder if anyone downloaded it (cause I didnt), and most importantly, why Frank, in the end, chose to publish it.