Other People's secrets

I just discovered the most awesome and amazing blog. Postsecret I am really really busy at work at the moment, but had to stop everything and scroll through the entire blog. It's great. It's actually similar to a book I finished reading before my trip to Italy. The book is called Found: The Best Lost, Tossed and Forgotten Items From Around The World. Additionally, I have recently become enamored with video blogs.

I think these three things have one thing in common, voyeurism. But what makes me love them is the human connection they provide. Reading about peoples' deepest secrets or reading their personal notes, or getting a glimpse into their private lives is wonderful because of that sense of recognition I get -- "Hey, Ryanne is a lot like me. Hey other people have similar secrets. Hey, I wrote a love note like that once. I am not alone..."

My grad school lecture was about this same idea in a way, except I talked about those little moments of human truth found in writing. I mean really, that is the goal for a writer, to convey something universal through a story about something specific. It's really exciting that these other people are doing that in their own ways -- videoblogging, collecting things people have lost (notes, lists letters etc.), writing secrets down on post cards and mailing them to a guy named Frank.

Happy weekend everyone.