Postcard secrets

My brother-in-law sent me this one today: PostSecret. The idea is to send an unsigned postcard with a secret on it. It’s an art project, and the cards the artist has put up so far are impressive little pieces of art in themselves. I have to guess he’s filtering out all the boring postcards on which someone has scrawled “I never flush public toilets.” In fact, the cards are so nice in some cases I start to wonder if the secrets are somewhat manufactured for effect. Still, there are some nice ones that have the ring of truth. I like the one that says

I miss feeling close to God.

… sounds like someone should consider moving back home to that Red State they grew up in. All this is reminiscent of the Apology Project, an installation by artist Allan Bridge that started in 1980 as an answering machine and an ad that encouraged people to call in and apologize for something bad they had done. That project grew and flourished for 15 years before the Bridge died. Here are some sample calls, including this dandy tit-for-tat tale from a Vietnam vet.

We all need to be absolved from time to time. Even so, nobody believes in the old cultural mechanisms that used to carry the load. These days, how many people would trust a priest with their secrets? It’s good to see innovation at work on the guilt frontier.

109 thoughts on “Postcard secrets”

  3. I love my best friend but I didn’t even tell him I’d miss him when we graduated. I’ll probably never see him again.

  8. i have feelings for so many guys but i just cant find the way to tell them! and if i do tell them which one do i want?

    *worst part: i fall in love quickly*

  10. i have a girlfriend, i think its been a little over a month. i still think about my last girlfriend all the time. oh ya…and i like boys, sometimes. im soo confused.

  12. I have been using him because I have never been so broke in my life. Though he is pretty much broke too

  13. sometimes i wonder if i die would any one go to my funeral….wonder if anny body would care?

  14. Im dating MY best friend but im in love with my ex-boyfriend and they dont even know…

    p.s my boyfriend HATES my ex boyfriend

  15. i love a boy and i wont tell him for fear that he’ll think i’m a freak. i have fantasies about him.

  17. My biggest fear is that my entire life is a lie, and even though no one knows it…God does.

  18. I am scared that I might be gay, because I dont want my family to abandon me… But I might not have to deal with that problem, because I have never been in love once in my life… Am I the freak I think I am?

  20. I hate my husband because he left me to go support his country and be a good husband by supporting his family. He’s a good man and faithful.

  22. I was 17 and took the morning after pill for a guy i thought i loved and now im scared i will never be able to have a child with the man i really love… and im getting married in a few months.

  23. a man i’ve loved for 3 years finally wants me and i’m not sure thats what i want now….

  24. My ex left me for someone else. We often talk about getting back together…and even though we still exchange romantic moments…I’ve lost nearly all respect for her for cheating. Every time we are together to sneek kisses I always HATE her in the morning.

  27. I wish that I could go back to the year when I had my best friend…and I wish I had told him how much I loved him before he left me.

  28. I know this guy and you will never meet anyone more perfect then him…but his girlfriend is cheating on him and no one knows but me.

  29. I messed around with my best friend’s boyfriend . . .
    and loved every minute of it.

  30. I wish she were still fat and ugly so I could be the hot skinny friend again.

  31. i slept with my best friends boyfriend becos she got pretty and i want the boys to look at me

  35. I KNOW my mother and I will NEVER have a good relationship, so I turn to my friend’s moms instead.

  36. I’m really afraid of love and commitment, but i don’t really think I’m that afraid of HIM.

  37. i know that if he ever cheated on me again it would break my heart.
    BUT i wish he would…so that i could leave him, FOREVER.

  38. he’s finally dating me, but secretly i think we both realize that being together is not as exciting as we thought. I don’t think he regards me as that special… but honestly, he does things to make me think poorly of him. Still, I don’t want to break up. It’s been such an accomplishment getting with him in the first place! Now, I find his friend more charming and my thoughts drift towards him now. its bad.

  39. I’ve liked him for about 5 years and he never had a clue.So I told him…Bad idea…Now we hardly ever talk.I think I ruined my chances…

  41. I am in love with my best friend, he has a girlfriend and I don’t know what to do.

  44. I am a cancer biologist living in the 63122 zip code with my wife and three children.

  45. 63122!? I’ve got a good mind to shut down this thread. Honestly! The things people will confess to in a public forum never cease to shock and distress me. You won’t find me going on and on about my obsessive desire to set fire to public buildings, or indeed mentioning it at all.

  49. He likes to verbally abuse me sometimes, and I think he’s using me, but I can’t stop liking him so much. Why do I have to feel this way? Why do my emotions always get in the way…

  50. my frends dont know but i wood really luv 2 be emo and i marked on my wrist with a pen but it sorta marked it…:S

  52. mah freind coodnt get over a boi tha she was with 4 1 month she coodnt get over him 4 6 months she kept on and on about him and on msn wood put sad faces and guns next 2 them….i wish she wood just do it if she sed she wood!

  53. I met the perfect guy during the summer of 2006. We dated for about 3 months; and now since we are both going away for school he doesn’t want a relationship or me. I am in love with a boy that doesn’t want me back. I just wish I could tell him that I love him and not feel rejected.

  54. Nobody really knows me because I lie to everyone about everything. I’m scared of my actual reality.

  56. I constantly change shifts around so that I’ll close with the guy I like, even though he’ll never like me. I also fooled around with his best friend and want nothing more than to rub it in his face.

  57. I have never told anyone that I was Molested by my neighbor from the age of 4 tell I was 12. Im angry, Not so much at him as at my Family for letting it happen to me.

  58. I’v been with my boyfriend for almost 4 years! I cant love him, I dont love me. I hate myself more and more every day, and he thinks I love him. How can I love me when I dont know who I am. LOST!!

  60. I’m with someone who is perfect. He holds me on a pedalstole, and reminds me of how lucky he is everyday. I wish I could find a way to stop cheating, and not be constantly looking for something more…

  64. WHEN I ASKED HIM WHAT HE WOULD SAY IF I SAID “EITHER THE DOG GOES OR I DO” HE REPLIED WITH “I GUESS YOU’D BETTER GET YOUR THINGS TOGETHER”

    WHY AM I STILL THERE?

  65. Everyday I make a wish, and today, I told my ex to make one too, he said, “I don’t really believe in that anymore.. I gave up hope..”
    I miss you..
    I know you miss me too..

  68. my boyfiend and i broke up because we dont want a relationship… but i dont want anyone else

  69. I’m engaged to a girl whom i’ve been with for three years. She’s driving me crazy because she’s so negative and doesn’t like it when I hang out with my friends away from her. I think I love her, but day by day I’m losing that feeling. Now I’m starting to fall in love with a girl who is amazing and matches up with me incredibly well. I’m getting to the point where I want to spend my time with her, not my fiance. I don’t know what to do now in my senior year of college. I feel as though I’ve been living the past 3 years in entirely the wrong way. I’m scared of marrying her if I love another, and I’m afraid to tell her that I’m in love with another, and I’m afraid of what my friends and family would say if I left her for someone else. I’m AFRAID right now.
    I feel like my heart is at war right now.

  70. we only dated for a few weeks and then he dumped me. and now, we are friends. I’m falling in love with him and he wants nothing to do with me, but we hang out all the time. i’m starting to hate him for not loving me.

  71. i talk all day about how stupid anarexia is and how dumb you would have to be to be bulimic and then i go whole days without eating and when im in the shower i use the back of my toothbrush to make myself puke…

    everytime someone says i look like i’ve lost weight i think “it’s working”

  72. i constantly lie, im so good at it i sometimes believe it myself…i dont know the difference between fact and fiction in my own life…..and i dont know how to tell my boyfriend ( of almost 8 months ) i embelished on stories of my past life to make him feel bad if he ever left me.

  74. Over the summer I started seeing a 30 year old woman. I am a 17 year old girl. Everyone one said it was wrong but I honestly had never been happier. Now we dont talk and shes all I can think about.

  76. Lincoln’s in St. Louis
    DE 09410218 B

    …oh wait…

    Sorry, I wasn’t paying attention.

    …uh…

    I miss her when I close my eyes, and hit the streetlamp instead.

  77. I loved George K58933162A from the minute I saw him at the Starbuck’s in Framingham, MA. I thought he cared for me too. He offered to buy me a coffee, and then boom! he was gone. Then I started hearing stories… first he’s in San Antonio, then Youngsville, then Baton Rouge. I still miss him terribly, but he’s such a tramp! For a dollar, he’ll do absolutely anything.

  78. One day,
    I went to school feeling like crap because of my weight..
    I never realized how much I had lost until an old friend of mine said
    “Stay off the crack! Your getting too skinny.”
    Honestly, I felt happy.
    And I’m not on crack..
    It’s the exorsize and health food.
    Who actually knew that worked?!

  79. Drew is in love with her but I secretly want to be with him. I cant tell him because what we have is good enough for me.
    Its has to be.

  82. Does that mean that you are the offspring of a mating between a woman, who prefers the company of other women, and a male lion; or that you are a lioness that prefers the company of other lionesses to the company of male lions? Come to think of it, lionesses travel and hunt together as large prides with males assuming a peripheral role. It seems quite likely that under these social circumstances, one might easily find lionesses that never mate or avoid the odd male interloper. Thusly, I suspect that you are not the former, a lesbian-lion hybrid, but the latter, a lioness who prefers to stay in the pride and avoid the advances of male lions. This makes me wonder: first, where did you get access to a computer with internet access in the middle of the serengheti (I hope you didn’t have to eat one of those lovely Abercrombe tour guides), and second, how are you able, with those big, unwieldy paws, to use the keyboard without making any typographical errors?

  83. i miss my ex best friend so much that i find ways to walk past him in the hallways at school. i think about him more than i should even though i know it only makes me depressed. i would give anything to go back in time and not have hurt him so bad. i love him more now that i lost him. worst of all…. he hates me because i cheated, and he shows me everyday…by telling everyone that i am a fucking slut. i lie and myself that he really still loves me. im so good at it i believe it.

  84. im jealous of my best friend because she gets EVERYTHING that i want…even the boys i like(and she knows that)

  85. im afraid that no one will ever love me, and that i will be alone forever….im afraid that no one will ever love me, and that i will be alone forever….

  87. I want you to know how much you mean to me. You show it more then I do.
    Boy, I’m jelous of you.

  92. When he said he has more pics of me then my cousin, I got happier. Sometimes, I feel he does really like me more then he likes my cousin. She just tries to get more attention. I love that he’s over protective, it makes me feel safe.

  95. i keep telling myself i don’t care about him..but then i give into him like that…i want to be strong.
    i need to be strong.
    i need to move on.
    i need to realize that he isn’t worth it.

  96. the love of my life’s ex has cancer… part of me wants her to get healthy quickly… and the rest of me wants him not to care about her and her illness at all. I feel like such a bad person, and so selfish and cruel. But I just can’t help it.

  100. i have recently stopped being friends with my best friend.
    I miss her terribly.
    I had so much fun with her and we shared so many laughs.
    It was the lieing that killed me.

  102. I have a best friend, and we’ve been friends for 6 years. But this year I met a new girl. She’s more like me and we never fight. I’m starting to get sick of my old best friend, and she knows it. She gets mad at me for hanging out with the new girl. And really, I don’t think I could care less.

  103. I love him. He is the only thing that makes me feel like live is worth living. But I can never be with him. And it kills me. Everyday I think about him. And it’s hard to live when nobody is there to help you get over it.

  104. People think they know me, but they will never know. Because I’m to scared of what people might think of me.

    And sometimes I wish -he- could be here to just give me a hug and save me from myself.

  105. hes my best friend and hes going out with my other best friend.
    she cheated.
    i love him

  106. I think my mother is gay however everytime I ask she says she likes men. If she likes them so much then why did she invite HER to move in years ago and she hasne’t moved out yet, my mom is happier with her around… however sometimes I worry that she loves HER more then me :(

  108. Sometimes I wish I were anorexic, just so I’d be thin.
    Maybe if I were thin, he would like me as more than just a friend.
    Although I’m fairly certain he likes my best friend more than he likes me.
    It’s not that much of a surprise.
    Everyone does.

  109. People always wonder why I freak out so much about being ignored.
    I think it’s just because I’m terrified of being forgotten.

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