Frank Warren has been called the most trusted stranger in America. And its no secret as to why.
Frank is the founder of the PostSecret movement, an online community where he allows people all over the world to create anonymous postcards with their secrets on them and send them to his home address for him to share with the online world. The movement has gone on to create books, a Hopeline suicide hotline, and spread mental health awareness.
Frank (and yes, oddly, I'll admit I feel a connection enough to the man to omit referring to him as Warren) is a crusader in formerly uncharted territory. During his speech at SLU on January 28th, he told a crowd of individuals that he has come to learn that the secrets we keep can in fact serve as bridges. That rather than isolate us from one another, in shame, insecurity or embarrassment, they can unite us. Bring us together. Actually, a lot of us share the same deeply buried secrets. Frank will be the first to tell you that we are not alone in the secrets we keep. He sees them everyday. He watches them repeat themselves on carefully homemade postcards, in a number of languages and handwriting styles. They come from senior citizens, teenagers and everyone in-between; those with the strength to address their own secrets, drop it in a mailbox, and let it go. In reality, PostSecret has become an international movement for modern therapeutic and healing practices of the human spirit.
Frank's speech was touching, hilarious, entertaining, heart-wrenching. He wasn't a stranger up on that stage, he was the room's best friend. And just how did that happen? How did the world come to trust Frank with their deepest thoughts? How did Frank get lines of people waiting behind a microphone to divulge their own secrets to the entire room? Who is this man that has asked for nothing of us, but the right to hold our secrets? And what has made the world so willingly oblige?
To create at atmosphere of trust and acceptance in a manner of minutes? That's Frank's gift. To listen, to get it. To calm your worst fears. And Frank doesn't exist behind that mysterious wizardly veil of something one can't truly touch or understand. He remains a person with admitted flaws, shared secrets. He allows himself to be just as vulnerable to his fans, just as human as the rest of the world.
If you love PostSecret, and you go to the website every Sunday morning with a hot coffee in hand to read the latest posted secrets-- you share this new ritual with thousands of people of all ages across the world. If you've never visited, go to Postsecret.com. Maybe even make your own postcard to send to Frank. And if he's ever in your city-- go see him and learn about the man behind the movement. You won't be disappointed. In fact, you'll feel like you've known the guy forever. That's the power of PostSecret, and the art of the man that is Frank.
Learn more about PostSecret and follow Frank's world tour at: Postsecret.com
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