Thanks to Brian (who I would link to if possible…), who alerted me that our friend Frank Warren is apparently on vacation. I searched for additional information, but could only find a (questionable) confirmation of what Brian said on Wikipedia. Of course, we all know that Wikipedia is an inimitable source of forthright, well-researched, and pertinent information. Well, maybe that last one. Wikipedia is fun, but you can’t really trust it.
Also, the comments, which caused such an uproar have subsequently been removed. It seems for the best. I have to say I lost some faith in the whole concept of PostSecret when I realized that most of the people reading the secrets (or at least commenting about them) are the same judgmental jugheads that you see everywhere else. I don’t really get it; if that’s the way you feel, why would you read the site? I suppose we’re all entitled to our own opinion, but I don’t know why there were so many more negative than positive comments. Very discouraging, in my opinion. Can we EVER stop judging each other?
I’m hardly innocent, but I like to think I don’t kick people when they’re down. There was one secret sent in from someone (whose gender was hotly debated in the infamous comment section) who made his/her cat drink bleach in order to try to get a date with his/her veterinarian. To be honest, I was completely unfazed by that one. I guess I figured that the cat must have drunk a negligible amount of bleach (aka: measured in drops) mixed with something else. It would be pretty hard to get an average cat to drink straight bleach, I imagine.
Who knows? I am neither an expert on cats nor bleach, so I certainly don’t. Maybe the cat really did suffer some horrible agony. I have to wonder, however, if the situation was really as bad as the gallery of commentators seemed to think. There was such an intense invective against this person. I almost felt bad for the individual, maybe even worse than I felt for the cat.
In summary, the whole thing was sad and ridiculous. Sad that the anonymity of the internet can bring out the worst in people (see: rampant plagiarism) and ridiculous that there was that much assuming going on.
My favorite constructive comments were of the “I hope someone forces YOU to drink bleach one day you stupid ……” Can’t you just see the loving kindness shining through that type of statement?
I know I can.
