It’s Sunday, which means I get to check out another batch of postcards on PostSecret. The site has been around for quite a while now, but just in case you haven’t heard about it, here’s the deal.

Frank Warren has invited people to grab a postcard, write a personal secret on it, and mail it to him at a P.O. Box. Every week he picks out a number of interesting ones and posts them on the site, which is updated on Sundays. That’s it.

Incredibly simple, right? I could build this site and set up the procurement/display system by lunchtime if I wanted to. And yet I go back to PostSecret again and again and again. I even own one of the books!

I keep returning because the secrets are real. This stuff doesn’t come from authors, screenwriters or playwrights — it comes from regular people sharing a secret about themselves, and I’m consistently impressed with the creative ways they find to transmit the message. I’ve been surprised, amused, annoyed and moved by these simple pieces of paper . . . there have been quite a few times where the raw emotion displayed has brought me to tears.

Occasionally Frank will post follow-up stories from readers or submitters talking about how sending in or reading a secret has impacted their lives. These messages provide some great insight into how we can all look at the same thing and pull radically different meanings from the data. It’s a great reminder of how we are all fundamentally the same, but can still be incredibly unique.

If you’ve never seen the site, I encourage you to check it out. Every week I find at least one or two postcards that mean something to me.

Oh, and if you know of any other sites or people who do something similar to this, please leave a note in the comments and let me know about them. I’d love to take a look.

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