Reminds me of "The Apology Project". Allan Bridge started an apology line in 1980 and recorded confessions of whoever was willing to call. Ira Glass did a piece on it on NPR. It is act 2 here:

http://www.thislife.org/Radio_Episode.aspx?sched=1053
(free to listen, absolutely fascinating phone confessions)

Transcripts of some of the apology/confessions are here:
http://www.apologyproject.com/samplecalls.htm

I remember listening to the show when I was much younger, one particular confession is particularly powerful and disturbing. There is supposedly a documentary being made by Thom Powers of Sugar Pictures.

Sometimes the postcards make me smile, sometimes they make me think, and other times they help remind me that no matter how hard I think life is, it could be a lot worse.

I found about that project a few months ago, and i really like everything about it, except the part where that guy takes all these secrets and make a book about them. It feels kinda wrong, somehow.

...all i thought was was..gee what a pretentious wanker that guy is for making a book out of it....

As far as I can tell, he donates any profits to the suicide hotline that he supports. Even if he does make a personal profit on the book, that seems only reasonable for the thousands of hours he must have spent providing this amazing service.

The PostSecrets don't show personally identifiable information, and the website does say explicitly that if you mail one in, you grant him the right to republish it. Which I think is probably a good thing, both for the people sharing their secret, and for the rest of us who get to read them and gain a deeper sense of our own humanity.

Overall, I'm impressed with the sensitivity that Frank has used to handle the position that he has been thrown into by surprise.

Comment hidden because you are ignoring dag.(show it anyway)

PostSecret is a great site.

What song is that?

It's "Breathe Me" by Sia. It's cryptically encoded in the tags already

I don't see what's wrong with publishing them. If they send it in, then they must want it to be published.

weird enough, as ridiculous as i thought it'd seem, i teared up a bit too.

No, really though, in honesty - who the hell has the rocks to work for the 1-800-suicide hotline?

Someone who has lost another to suicide. People who care.

My guess is that every postcard in the book was OKed by the person who sent it.
I read a post on YT from one of the people who sent him a card (prison tv guy) thanking him for what he has done.

Thought I recognised that music... http://www.videosift.com/video/Six-Feet-Under-Final-Scene-wClaire-in-her-car-

Kind of sad that some people have secrets that they can't share with anyone in their lives, but really cool that postsecret offers them a place to unload. I can't imagine trying to bottle stuff like that up.

Comment hidden because you are ignoring dag.(show it anyway)

Oh yeah - that's right. Good memory Beticus - I knew I had heard it too, somewhere.

who the hell has the rocks to work for the 1-800-suicide hotline?

Same type of people who work as paramedics in ugly areas, or in rehab clinics, or whatever else. There are more special people out there than we realize who live with ugly things year after year somehow.

The two comments in the video that struck me the most was the line "I let him walk in darkness alone" and the one that looked like it was from a troop, said he'd never be as good at anything in his life as he is at killing people.

I don't know if this project helps them or not but some of them seem to need to get it out somehow, talk to someone.

I woke up this morning, log on to see how many views have been recorded on YouTube for the postsecret video and found this site and blog- reading that the video made you cry made my day- this is a moving project and a true labor of love. I look forward to posting on this site in the future.

who the hell has the rocks to work for the 1-800-suicide hotline?

People who really love to love.

I was deeply moved. What an incredible resource Frank provides.

" Kind of sad that some people have secrets that they can't share with anyone in their lives"

"I cut the hair of kids I babysit while they sleep."

That's a freaky bitch right there......!!

Here's the song from this video.

*promote

Promoting this video back to the front page; last published Sunday, August 12th, 2007 4:18pm PDT - promote requested by eric3579.