Since I discovered PostSecret a few years ago, it’s become very much a guilty pleasure for me.  I call it “guilty,” because seeing these secrets posted every Sunday is almost voyeuristic to me — these people are giving me a peek into their own heads, and I’m seeing the dirty, deep secrets that they’ve kept to themselves.  In some ways, it’s therapeutic though, since it makes me think two things:  (1) that I’m not the only one with a little craziness upstairs and (2) that there are people out there who are way more screwed up than I am, and even though it makes me feel a little guilty to think that, it still makes me feel better that I’ve got it pretty good in comparison.  In some ways, it’s almost therapeutic, and everyone who I’ve given a PostSecret book to as a present has always come back to me weeks later to say that the book is incredible and it’s one of the best presents they’ve gotten.

I don’t know if I’d ever post a secret.  I either keep things to myself or I blast it out all over the world, either by blog or by e-mail to friends or by telling them personally.  I’m usually not a secretive person, so anything I keep to myself is pretty much on double-secret lockdown.  But I still admire the people with the bravery to send in their own — for whatever reason they do, it’s therapeutic for them to send and for me to read.  And if it helps me or them or anyone else reading it, then the project has done its job.

There’s a short movie up on the site that sums things up pretty well, and the person who started the whole thing talks briefly about his own experiences with PostSecret.  If you’ve never gone to the site, it’s an incredible introduction.  If you have, well, it furthers the experience.  Please watch it.