May 7, 2015
(This is part
of a 365 project during my 70th year where I write and illustrate a blog on
each day's gift.)
Secrets are the currency of intimacy. ~ Frank Warren
Frank Warren spoke at the American Visionary Art
Museum (AVAM) today. In 2004, he began inviting people to anonymously mail him
secrets with some artwork on postcards. Since then, he has received more than
one million postcards which have been exhibited in more than a dozen museums
and galleries. Why would people send their secrets to him—or anybody?
Warren shared his feelings about the secrets
anonymous people have shared with him and, as he spoke, I understood the human
need to connect:
Kept secrets are walls; shared secrets become bridges. ~ Frank Warren
He shared secrets people had mailed to him on
postcards and it was uncanny how these secrets seemed to reach out to everyone
who heard them. He asked if anyone in the audience had sent him a secret. A few
hands raised and when he asked one brave woman how she felt after she had
shared, she said, “It was freeing.”
Warren spoke about the narratives of each postcard
and how suffering is universal. He also shared some of his own secrets and said
that if he could go back and start over again, he would do all the same things
because, “You earn your soul through suffering.” This is what I’ve been saying
for many years. If I could go back and start over again, what would I do
differently? I would do all the same things because I believe that in order to
get to where I am now, I had to live through those experiences. They helped
shape who I am today and I like who I am now.
My
gift today was strangers' secrets.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Read more about Post Secrets: http://postsecret.com/
You can find links to my other
posts on this project here:
http://bjschupp.blogspot.com/2014/12/365-gifts.html
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