As I went to post a new blog entry for today, I paid attention to my Dashboard page.
Blogger is featuring the fourth installment of a graphic art and word book entitled PostSecret: A Lifetime of Secrets. This book is a compilation of postcards sent to the author by college art students each one featuring some type of secret. The project, as most neat projects do, became far wider reaching.
Blogger linked to the author Frank Warren's blog site, because he posts new postcards there each week apparently. Who knew?
I will do the same, because some of the postcards are fascinating.
Here it is: http://www.postsecret.blogspot.com/
I do not endorse the content of all the secrets, but the project is a fascinating one, and they are, after all, secrets.
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Speaking of secrets. . .
When I had to make a long trip a few weeks ago by car to another state for personal business, I stopped at a Wendy's to get some lunch.
As I drove away from the establishment, there was a young female employee in her 20s perhaps seated outside the door with her legs up and her arms on her knees. She was smoking a cigarette and had her head back leaning against the wall.
The image of this woman has stuck with me, because I don't know if I have ever seen a more hopeless face on a person. She didn't look angry or necessarily sad, but she did look utterly hopeless as if she'd given up.
I regret that I didn't stop that day and speak with her. If nothing else, I could have at least told her that I "noticed" her sitting there or offered a hug.
I noticed her, and I'm still noticing her in my mind.
Would her knowing this have made her (or make her now) feel a little less hopeless?
Would this gesture on my part have made all the difference?
I'll never know, because I let the moment pass. . .
But the moment isn't letting my mind pass.
10 comments:
e: I'll have to take a look at that postcard blog. Though I wonder how many secrets these cards reveal...
I doubt you would have had an effect on that woman at Wendys if you had stopped to talk to her for such a short time. She probably would have thought you were crazy or something. ;>)
Who knows what her deal was?
I love post secret. Sandi Snyder showed it to me last summer. Hope you had a nice evening!
I have heard of the postcard project and find it fascinating. As far as the woman, I think those small gestures can make a huge difference, if not in their life, in their day :)
i can't believe neither of you (e or g) had heard of post secret before. It's brilliant!
Sometimes the secrets are hilarrious, sometimes they're heartwrenching, but just the fact that an artist from suburban maryland has created the most visited nonadvertiser supported site on the entire web says something about the power of the project!
i'm with j on the wendys woman.
Life is made up of small gestures.
Green: The secrets are pretty revealing and some of them are pretty heartwrenching like AG said.
Even if the girl would have thought I was crazy, I don't think a hug or an act of kindness is ever a loss. There is a lyric to a song I like: "It's never for nothing when you love with no return." I also like what AG said: "Life is made up of small gestures."
Sometimes a person just needs to know that he or she is noticed by another human.
Fondue: I saw PostSecret and totally thought of you and that you would love it. It's kind of like the altered books you make.
JLee: I'm glad you know about PostSecret, and I completely agree with you.
AG: No, I hadn't heard of PostSecret before, but I love it that you have all that inside info about it!
As to the woman, I couldn't have said it better myself. Life is made of small gestures.
Kinda makes you want to go back and hug her, doesn't it?
I can tell you that many times I am that person you saw and yeah...it might make a difference :(
I'm sorry, Scribe.
Consider yourself hugged.
I don't know if talking to her would have done any good. She would have probably snapped at you. I was at lunch with my mom one day and she noticed a woman eating alone. She said the woman truly looked anguished.
Once I was in line at Wal-Mart and the woman behind me said, "You look really sad." I was going through a divorce at the time and I probably was but I didn't realize it showed. "You're a beautiful woman," she said. "Try to just get some sleep and not worry so much." Oddly, her words made me feel much better, but it did make me a little uncomfortable.
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