What's your secret?
That's the question Frank Warren is asking when he encourages people to contribute to PostSecret, an ongoing community art project in which, according to the blog for the project, people mail in their secrets anonymously on one side of a postcard.
Last week, I went to hear him speak because I, like many, am fascinated by people's secrets and intrigued by the idea of people sharing them with the "world's most trusted man." I also knew that Warren is a staunch suicide prevention advocate.
Warren's talk is about the kinds of secrets he gets to see and his responses to these secrets. He shows his audience secrets that have, for various reasons, been "banned" from inclusion in any one of the five published PostSecret books. Warren is often asked what he does when people write in with secrets about wanting to hurt or kill someone else. He said that he doesn't really get those secrets, but that he does get a lot of secrets about suicide.
"Suicide is America's secret," said Warren.
Whether an artifact of the suicide prevention theme running through his talk, or a reflection of the realities of those in attendance, it became clear by the end of the evening that suicide and suicide prevention were on the minds - and in the secrets - of those who attended. As a conclusion to his presentation, Warren invites members of the audience to share their secrets with the group, at microphones stationed at different spots in the room. Several of the brave young people who shared their secrets shared that they had thought about or attempted suicide.
I'm used to thinking and talking about suicide and suicide prevention all day, but when I was listening to those who shared their secrets, I experienced the same chills, the same tears, and the same awe that struck everyone else in the room.
"When we think we're keeping a secret," Warren said, "Sometimes that secret is really keeping us."
Hearing all of these secrets related to suicide made me think that a PostSecret book with just suicide-related PostSecrets would be a way to illustrate that suicide is America's secret. How many people are "kept" by their secret about suicide?
