The World’s First E-Resident, Right To Work In Wisconsin, The World Of PostSecret

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• World Gets Its First E-Resident

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  On December 1, Edward Lucas, a British citizen and a senior editor at The Economist, became the world’s first ever e-resident. Lucas shares what it means to him and how it could affect future national and international boundaries.

• Monday morning, Wisconsin’s Senate majority leader Scott Fitzgerald told conservative talk radio host Charlie Sykes that he plans to take up so-called “Right to Work” legislation at the beginning of the coming legislative session, which is in a few weeks. The legislation would restrict unions at private companies from requiring employees to pay dues.

• The World Of PostSecret

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  Ten years after the launch of the PostSecret project, creator Frank Warren has released a new book with more secrets than ever before. He discusses the community that has grown around PostSecret and how the project has changed his life over the last decade.

• PostSecret Lays Bare Deep, Dark And Often Hilarious Confessions

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  There are lots of people with deep, dark secrets they wouldn’t dare share with friends or family. That’s where Frank Warren comes in.

  Warren is the creator of PostSecret, an art project that collects and shares anonymous confessions from around the world. Anyone with a secret can write it down on a postcard and send it to Warren, who will then scan the postcard and upload it to his website.

  Some of the latest and greatest secrets are now featured in the new book “The World of PostSecret.”

  “I’d like to imagine that each of us has this box that we keep our secrets in,” Warren said. “We make a choice every day if we should bury it down deep inside like a coffin and forget about it, or bring it out, open it, and share our secrets like gifts.”

  In the nearly 10 years that Warren has been working on the project, he’s heard all sorts of secrets ranging from confessions about reading an ex-girlfriend’s email account to stories of sexual assault and violence. Warren said sharing these secrets can often be a healing experience, both for the senders and the readers.

  “The most extraordinary part of the project is when you’re visiting the PostSecret website, and you come across a secret written in somebody else’s handwriting that articulates a burden or a fear or a passion that you’re carrying in your heart at that moment, better than you can even express it yourself,” he said.

  A community sprang up around PostSecret soon after its inception. That was initially a surprise to Warren, but he said he understands it now.

  “In some ways, if we keep those secrets inside, they’re like walls, but if we can find a way to let them go, they become bridges that connect us to others in surprising ways,” he said.

  Warren said he’s witnessed incredible acts of kindness through PostSecret, and numerous instances of strangers helping strangers. He pointed to one experience with the PostSecret app, where a young man took a picture out of his bedroom window, and submitted it along with his secret: that he’d just been diagnosed with a terminal illness and wanted to see the world but knew he’d never have the chance.

  “And within a week, over 700 strangers using the app took photos of attractions and monuments and sites near them, and sent them all to this young man,” said Warren. “So, he virtually did get a chance to see the world through the kindness of strangers he’ll never get a chance to thank.”

  Ultimately, Warren believes that revealing secrets is a risk, but that the benefits tends to outweigh the negatives.

  “I think part of being human and expressing ourselves is to take those risks, and if we don’t, maybe those regrets are even larger,” he said.