PostSecret
I've been [watching / reading] this interesting [project / blog], PostSecret. The idea is that people anonymously create a postcard with a secret they have, send it in, and then the person running the blog posts several each Sunday. The postcards are sad, funny, intimate, painful, and really addicting. It's not just what people say, but how they say it that is so amazing. I am intrigued at how people use, images, drawing, and text to say what they mean, in ways that are much deeper than just the words on the page.
I am also a fan of how the project is creating a cultural space for confession and does so in a way that is not at the expense of the person confessing, as our television talks shows are so fond of doing. Confession is a real need for people, one that isn't well supported in US culture. In addition, when confession is allowed or encouraged, there is almost never forgiveness available to accompany it. The church has a great gift to give here--confession AND forgiveness. The Catholic church has long had a mechanism for confession and forgiveness, but it hasn't been as available in the protestant church, perhaps it should be.
Comments
Wow. I was view the post card site while a song called Completely Free by Big Daddy Weave was playing on my computer. It occured to me that people don't feel completely free, ever. During confession at church I used to think of things like, God forgive me of being mean to my sister or God, I confess that I don't always think of you. Thought those are okay confessions, they aren't true confessions. To confess is to give it all to Christ...even the stuff we don't know that keeps us in bondage to this life. Christ died so that we can be free, not so that we can be guilty. The postcards are examples of confession. ..and yet it seems that it isn't merely the confession but the acknowledgement and legitimacy that is given that confession by others knowing of it. The whole world now know's this person's secret and it frees him or her. I was stuck by the honesty of the postcards. I will think on this for quite awhile.
Thank you for engaging me in discussion in class this week. I appreciated it. Some times I can't always say what I mean...I'm still forming what I mean in the words that come out. Some times the words form simple ideas and some times I make myself think.
Peace,
Karen
Posted by: Karen Gutzman | October 25, 2005 02:52 AM