keeping secrets

i'm a walker. or at least try to be. it's the nicest form of exercise, if you asked me. being outside with the sky, maybe singing to yourself or chatting to a friend or just thinking, or maybe listening to a podcast or something.

anyway! today i listened to the ted radio hour podcast about keeping secrets. it was interesting, ranging from secrets about stealing from the government to "coming out of closets" (not just regarding sexuality) to my favourite one, about the guy at post-secret.

at post-secret...

i come from a culture where people aren't very open about personal things. most of my friends and family have some sort of british background and canadians just tend to be quite respectful and reserved. to this day my mum won't tell us how my dad proposed!

there's something nice about having secrets. and reflecting on what those are reminds us of what it means to be human. having secrets means you can share them with someone you're intimate with, or have things that make you truly yourself that you can hold onto.

here's the ted talk from post-secret.

i love you

soooo this video is too cute. (although i personally would never have this problem #blabbermouth)

patti smith's advice.

love this talk with patti smith and her advice for the young.

"what matters is to know what you want and pursue it and understand that it's gonna be hard. because life is really difficult. you're gonna lose people you love, you're gonna suffer heartbreak, sometimes you'll be sick, sometimes you'll have a really bad toothache... but on the other hand, you'll have the most beautiful experiences. sometimes just the sky. sometimes a piece of work that you do that feels so wonderful or you find somebody to love or your children. there's beautiful things in life. so just know that when you're suffering, it's part of the package. when you look at it, we're born and we also have to die. so it makes sense that we're gonna be really happy and things are gonna be really fucked up too. just know that and ride with it. it's like a roller coaster ride and there're gonna be rough spots but it's all worth it. at least i think it is."

ps: i read just kids, the memoir of her friendship with robert mapplethorpe, earlier this year and totally loved it. kind of a fairy tale about NYC in the 60s and a beautiful meditation on love and art.