207) Secret Strength

(Image from drinking raindrops.)

Tonight I had planned on going to one of The Moth's StorySLAMS, a mini live storytelling competition on the LES. Each StorySLAM features a different theme, and tonight's was "Secrets." Long story short, I underestimated The Moth, and showed up to a line around the block.

As I navigated the (cold) fifteen minute walk back to my apartment, I started to think about secrets. I wondered what kind of secrets people would talk about, what I would have said. Secrets are subjective, individually defined, yet universally powerful. They are made stronger through a self-awareness of their own unknown. The secrets we hide, the ones we share, and to whom - it's all part of the shared human experience, yet says worlds about who we are as individuals.

The success of Postsecret (still one of my favorite crowdsourced art projects), the delight we take from a public figure's secret revealed (vocally anti-gay politicians caught with their male escorts - it's like Christmas come early). That inner fluttering joy you got when you were young and your best friend trusted you with a secret. Like I said, powerful stuff.

I talk a lot about what people say they want versus what they really want. And what are our deepest hidden desires, if not secrets that we keep from others and ourselves for fear of judgment?

P.S. - Here's a shameful mini secret for you, my dear Plan readers. My current guilty pleasure is watching old episodes of The Hills on Netflix and aching over b-roll footage of LA. Silly. New York is all sorts of wonderful, but LA is brimming with nostalgia.