Secrets

Double Entry Day, just because I found something cool and wanted to share it! :p Frank Warren did an Ask Me Anything thread on reddit and it provided me awareness of his site. It's a community art project where he gets sent secrets in postcard art format anonymously, and he then reads, picks and chooses those to be featured on the site and published books. It's an interesting site that has been going on for years and it's only now that I found out about it. Thanks Reddit! There are many secrets that have been featured that can trigger all sort of emotions.

One striking secret I want to centre on is this one:

The 9/11 was a huge devastasting global event, it affected many people in all sort of different ways. I was safely in my home in England watching it all happen on TV. To actually be there and actually experience the event I can only imagine. The fear, the adrenaline, the hopelessness, the death that occured, seems unbearable to me. And this secret brings a whole new perspective.

It's an incredible powerful image, and is for certain a modern work of art in my eyes. There're so much more hidden secrets within this, it's just so fascinating to me. If you think about it this person having experienced the event, who may have excaped certain death. Knowing that she or he survived, all they could think about is escaping and starting again. What does it take for someone to want to start a new life? Who were the people he/she left behind? The suffering or relief that caused from his/her fake death. The feeling from moment of making that decision must have been incredible! The liberating feeling of freedom? Cutting ties with family, friends, enemies? Then once you've started a new life, the dark and ever increasing secret in hiding your past. The lies you need to keep in starting again, the constant looking over your shoulder? Just WOW!

From another perspective. Imagine the family and friends of victims from the 9/11, where the bodies were not found and then having read this. The images of hope or wonder that their loved one is still alive in this world is also a powerful response from the secret.

Let's think for the moment about yourself hypothetically. If you had just faked your own death how would you feel. Relief? Regret? Those people you have left behind, would you miss them? I'm trying to imagine myself, how I'd feel for me to leave my family and friends, work and responsibilities. It's hard to imagine, in some sense there would be some relief, in another the cause of pain and suffering that would be caused because of it. It's like contemplating suicide, but just escaping and living with the fact you've left it all behind, keeping the past hidden and carry on suriviving. Too much for my little brain to bear, especially on a quiet Friday afternoon at work.

Now this being the internet, who knows what's real and what's fake. Even if this is fake it has created some thought provoking art, and because of that I still commend it!

My Secret

Personally I don't have many secrets, I've had too much of a boring, standard life but I do have a secret that I'm willing to share now that I'm older. When I was young, I can't remember how old, I was messing around with a tennis racket indoors, wacking a small cuddly toy against the wall. This was in the living room, where we had a rather large aquarium, with fishes. To provide context of the location. We lived in a take away, so the ground floor was the kitchen and take away area, and the upstairs was our bedrooms, living room and bathrooms. So anyway as you can guess one swing got a bit too wild and I smashed the top of the fish tank. In a panic I didn't know what to do, water was gushing down, the carpet floor was getting wet! If my parents found out I'd have got a right rollicking so I didn't want to admit that I did it. So how can I get away with it? Well because the fish tank was positioned below the clock on the wall. I took down the clock and placed it into the gap where the aquarium was broken. Then made my way downstairs like nothing had happened.

After some agonising minutes of waiting for someone to go upstairs and discover what has happened. Eventually my mum walks up and finds the damage that has been done, and she comes down in shock and horror and tells my dad that the clock fell down and smashed the fish tank! Huzzah I got away with it! Well sort of.... I was still  the one to clean up the mess with a mop and bucket, as my parents were still working at the time. So although I wasn't officially punishment, it was enough redemption for me to clean it up for myself. At least I felt guilt free in not owning up. Note the fishes survived and we bought a new fish tank to replace it.

So that's my little secret. :p It's not much of one, but it's one I'll always remember. Maybe I'll submit this secret to Postsecret and see if it gets featured.

'The clock didn't do it... I did.'

Will have to think of cool art work to go with it. :p