Forgive me, blogger, for I have sinned...
The Internet has long been the confessional of the 21st century. But it isn't just bloggers and forum participants who are now seeking absolvement of their sins. Now old-world media artists can participate, too.
I discovered the gorgeous and brilliantly-conceived
postsecret.blogspot.com today and really enjoyed browsing through the tremendous humanity of its content. The site encourages people to anonymously contribute secrets by creating their own 4-by-6-inch postcard with a deeply personal confession and then mailing it in to the webmaster, Frank, in Germantown, Maryland. He then uses his editorial discretion to to post a few new cards each Sunday for the world to share.
According to the site's submission guidelines, "each secret can be a regret, hope, funny experience, unseen kindness, fantasy, belief, fear, betrayal, erotic desire, feeling, confession, or childhood humiliation. Reveal anything - as long as it is true and you have never shared it with anyone before."
As you will see if you visit (and you should), the confessions are raw, anguished, beautiful and breathtaking. You can't really feel truly alone with unique guilt or regret once you've been through these. The sadness runs truly deep, but its expression is uplifting, enlightening and somewhat humorous.
I was reminded of a little Burd, and of myself a few years ago.
There were several that I really connected with, but this one in particular stood out for me:
Creating something great - either changing the world for the better or leaving an artistic or intellectual legacy - has long been one of my raisons d'être. And having faith that this type of immortality is not only achievable later in life, but something that can be looked forward to from a positive, colourful perspective, sits very well within me.
I also LMAO when I saw a postcard made from a parking ticket. It said: "I got a parking citation and so did the car next to me. I replaced the ticket on the car next to me with mine. My ticket got paid. And the one I took? I mailed it to PostSecret."
Forgive me, blogger, for I have sinned... Too funny.
The site reminds me a lot of
www.notproud.com which has a similar theme of allowing people to anonymously confess online, but PostSecret is far better because of the visual artistry and non-pedestrian nature of the contributions.
I like PostSecret because of its content and its contributors. There's something special about people who make the time to conceive, create and actually mail a postcard with a deeply personal expression of self on it. I wonder if they are actually seeks absolvement for what they perceive as their sins, or if they just need to share. Either way, it's now on my "rounds list" for regular visitation.
Credit: The postcard image above was reproduced with permission from postsecret.blogspot.com (it allows bloggers to post a single image).
Welcome to my next chapter
I stopped blogging one morning about four years ago, when the digital confluence of my personal and professional lives became uncomfortable. I was meeting with a potential new client of the design and branding agency where I was working and, in the presence of my colleagues, the client commented about what a wonderful writer I was and asked how I was feeling about my recent breakup with CL.
Thrown significantly and uncommonly off-guard in a work environment, I stammered an awkward response and blushed like an embarrassed teenager. I wasn't prepared for questions about
her, especially not
there, and there was
no way I was going to discuss my
feelings in a boardroom at my office.
In ludicrously-obvious retrospect, I realize I still hadn't quite fully grasped the power of singular voice on the Internet.
Until that point, most of my focus had been on understanding communities and the power of a collective voice online. Professionally, I was building large sites which empowered communities to create content, disseminate information, interact, participate and grow. My four years at the Discover Channel Online and various other gigs taught me a lot about how to do this successfully.
While I had built and maintained personal websites since 1995, they were always personal – for myself, my friends and my family. After all, who would have found my sites on geocities.com, interlog.com or even ideafist.com unless I had pointed them directly at the URL (search then was certainly not as sophisticated as it is today)? I felt comfortable sharing a lot about myself and my experiences, as I thought I knew who comprised my audience and could craft the message accordingly (leaving out details and embellishing as I saw fit).
When I received that comment and the surge of follow-up interest from some colleagues, I found it easier to
turn it off than get into details or explain myself. So I put up a silly picture of myself tongue-kissing Captain Q. Farf at SS's wedding and posted a message about the site being "temporarily offline." Other than one post about joining the Russell Leon Band in 2003, my own voice on Ideafist.com stayed dormant for almost four years.
I have learned much in that time, about communities, voices, the Internet, the blogosphere and life. And I’ve also been doing a lot of writing, though very little of it has been personal in nature. I co-authored the book
Practical Intranet Development for Glasshaus Books in the UK, wrote several very thick white papers about Internet strategy, community-enablement online and digital marketing for clients, and have been writing regularly for
NOW Magazine in Toronto (about how technology influences society and culture). I've discovered – gradually reminded myself, rather – that I really enjoy writing and find that I have quite a bit to say.
And that's why I think it's time for me to start blogging again. This is the fourth generation of personal site I’ve created in 10 years and it will definitely evolve in content, style and functionality as I get into a groove with it during the next few months.
It will be a place for me to post thoughts and pictures during this next chapter of my life (more on that to follow in a few days – suffice it to say that I've got big changes coming). Of course, some parts of my life will
definitely remain private, but I haven’t quite defined those boundaries yet. As I do (and I reserve the right to change my mind), I'll let you know right here in
The Adventures of JStar88 on The Blue Marble.
BTW, thanks to Mikey for help with the name.
Anyway, to end the introduction, I’ll just say that I’m back – for now – and I’m excited about lots of things. Much more on
that to follow shortly...
