Some Secrets are Better Left Unsaid
Have you ever been to the website Postsecrets.com? It's an interesting site where people send in their secrets on a postcard to Frank, a guy in Maryland who puts them on his site. He also has a book, PostSecret : Extraordinary Confessions from Ordinary Lives,
which I bought for someone as a gift. I know this site is popular, but if I had a secret to write in to him, it would be that I really hate some of the secrets he shares! Some of the secrets are so downright pathetic and cruel that frankly, I wonder about the morals of some of the authors of these little gems. For example, one postcard read, "It makes me very happy when I hear about a hunter accidentally getting killed while hunting, wish it would happen more often." Charming. Another postcard reads, "I gave a child up for adoption 25 years ago. She found me. I wish to God I had had the abortion instead." Of course, some of the secrets people send in are sweet and sincere or just disturbing but not morally bankrupt. Check it out if you have not been to the site. It is rather interesting.
which I bought for someone as a gift. I know this site is popular, but if I had a secret to write in to him, it would be that I really hate some of the secrets he shares! Some of the secrets are so downright pathetic and cruel that frankly, I wonder about the morals of some of the authors of these little gems. For example, one postcard read, "It makes me very happy when I hear about a hunter accidentally getting killed while hunting, wish it would happen more often." Charming. Another postcard reads, "I gave a child up for adoption 25 years ago. She found me. I wish to God I had had the abortion instead." Of course, some of the secrets people send in are sweet and sincere or just disturbing but not morally bankrupt. Check it out if you have not been to the site. It is rather interesting.
posted by Helen at 3:05 PM
22 Comments:
I understand your distaste, but that is exactly the point. People are revealing what, in some cases, they are ashamed of. Emotions that they know are not acceptable. I love the site. Yes, it can be depressing poignant and gross - but so is life. "We are only as sick as our secrets", so maybe some of these people are less sick now that their secret it online.
The relationship confessions are often horrifying.
I had to stop reading them or I would never be able to trust my girlfriend!
What urge drives people to put things like this out there anyway? I suppose it might be cathartic, but really, who cares if confession is cathartic for someone wishing death upon people with whom they disagree?
I'm betting that at least half of those are made up.
Like Anjali - I too think that a lot if the "confessions" might be fiction rather than real confessions. And like Jephnol - I am a bit sicked by the politically correct chap who wishes death on someone who he disagrees with.
I can agree with the two previous posts, that a good many are made up. But then, what does it say that someone would say such things?
I have seen it , and it did disgust me , I am glad I am not the only one feeling this way .
Uh, I know people who have done things as bad as some of the confessions on the site. Truth is stranger than fiction.
The interesting thing is that many of the confessions are of things done in secret. It's no news to hear of a junkie doing some reprehensible thing; it is news to hear that such things were done by the honor student or the upright wife and mother. The disparity between appearance and reality iis the thing that I find compelling and horrifying.
Of course they're made up. It's billed as an **ART** project. Look at the postcard images - the creative presentations, etc. Most of them are intended as social statements rather than actual confessions. The one about hunters being killed is sick, true or not.The one about giving up a child for adoption, I'm willing to bet, is not true, but rather a statement in support of keeping confidential adoption records confidential - the implication is that if you start opening the records, women who no longer can count on confidentiality being honored might choose abortion insteads.
I wonder what would happen if someone sent in a non-PC postcard? Would it get printed? I do hope most of these secrets are made up and that if not, at least the writers are embarrassed and ashamed of their feelings. Some of them should be. I wonder if people who are artist types have nowhere to confess and this is who mainly sends in these cards?
I hope these confessions are fabricated. Because if they're genuine, I'm reminded of something Dr. Helen's husband once wrote about anonymity on the Internet: that while it's easy, it's pretty superficial, and if somebody *really* wants to know who you are, they can probably find out.
The confessions are real. Are they that unbelievable? We live in a world where a mother can drown her five children in the family tub and 18-year-olds can strap on bombs and kill dozens of innocent people along with themselves. Actually, these confessions are quite tame when compared with what I read daily in the newspaper.
As for them being artistic, isn't that the point of the site?
Hi Jess,
How do you know the confessions are real? Do you have secret access to all of the people who send in these cards?
susanj,
The difference is that while you may see us as "judgmental," which is your right, not one person here has said that the postcards should be taken off the website, the site shut down or the guy who runs it silenced. We are simply discussing our reactions to the cards. Big deal.
"Like it or not, they are part of US!"
I have often heard this reasoning behind the presentation of all sorts of disturbing material, but I don't completely buy it. That there are people in our society who rape, kill and eat little boys does not necessarilly mean that the personal demons drove the individual to that action exist or hold sway over human society on a whole. Rather, I believe in the innate goodness of people and that thoughts such as "I hope hunters would just kill themselves" are aberations.
No personal affront to susanj intended, but I have to wonder if the sentiment expressed is more one of casting another's deviancy as normal in order to project one's own problems in a more acceptable light.
What would be a big deal is if we reacted with a blase 'ho hum'. That would be aberrant. Sad, though, that we are so inured to the grotesque, the tragic, the sick that we sometimes do react with a sigh and move on. Like those confessing on the postcards, those of us who read them need some kind of catharsis, too, even if it's a mere barbaric yawp of outrage.
Jess, It's not that the confessions themselves are unbelievable, but that the presentation of each is so creatively contrived, not spontaneous. These postcards took time and creativity to produce. That's the premeditation of an author, not a spontaneous cathartic outburst. Why don't I believe them? When it's that elaborate, I think, to quote the Bard, "methinks the lady protesteth overmuch."
Anne, the internet became truly anonymous when wireless hotspots popped up in every coffee shop. You can post from the parking lot.
Susanj, your moral relativism is palpable. They are not US, they are them. Humanity can be divided on the basis of many characteristics, and character is probably the most important. Without claiming to be one, there are people who live their lives better and make more right choices than others.
Helen, you said " if not, at least the writers are embarrassed and ashamed of their feelings"
Ashamed of feelings? Have you looked around? No one is supposed to ever be ashamed of their feelings anymore. For starters, that would imply they had responsibility for or control over their feelings, and then how would we justify victim-think with regard to mental health and the pharmaceutical society?
My vote is at least half those post cards are fake, and by the people behind the site. No, it isn't as if nobody ever has horrible secrets, but the chances of random secrets having that degree of artistic unity seems really, really slim to me.
Postsecret is one of the most popular Blogger websites and probably in the top 10 of all blogs. Personally, I don't understand it. It seems like a rather boring site.
希望大家都會非常非常幸福~
「朵朵小語‧優美的眷戀在這個世界上，最重要的一件事，就是好好愛自己。好好愛自己，你的眼睛才能看見天空的美麗，耳朵才能聽見山水的清音。好好愛自己，你才能體會所有美好的東西，所有的文字與音符才能像清泉一樣注入你的心靈。好好愛自己，你才有愛人的能力，也才有讓別人愛上你的魅力。而愛自己的第一步，就是切斷讓自己覺得黏膩的過去，以無沾無滯的輕快心情，大步走向前去。愛自己的第二步，則是隨時保持孩子般的好奇，願意接受未知的指引；也隨時可以拋卻不再需要的行囊，一路雲淡風輕。親愛的，你是天地之間獨一無二的旅人，在陽光與月光的交替之中瀟灑獨行.................
playboyvlog影片aa片免費看影片免費成人影片嘟嘟情人網影片大奶妹做愛影片微風成人區情色文學aa的滿18歲影片免費線上看a片性愛影片色咪咪影片網哈啦聊天室咆哮小老鼠影片aa成人漫畫葉晴貼影片影片轉檔程式情色影片foxy下載色情小說女影片免費下載a片aa免費看情色文學成人小說aa 片免費看影片 aa訊豆豆出租名模情人視訊aaa影片下載城男同志影片免費影片線上直播
Post a Comment
<< Home