Every time I sit down to write a story, I think, “Oh man. THIS person is the epitome of a secret person.”
I realize that the concept of this website is a little strange. Choosing to not name the people we write about seems counter productive — how will we know who the secret people are if they are not named? Doesn’t it demean people to make their identities a secret? I’ve wrestled through this many times, since starting this website in April.
In his commencement address at UPenn, Bono says that to save the age we must defy the age. I don’t necessarily see myself as someone who is trying to save the age, of course we all do our part. I do see that identity has become a skewed concept, that we lose sight of humanness when we put people in boxes and choose to label them — hipster, homeschooled, a suit, a character, pretty, ugly, fat, skinny, athletic, a really good ______. We are much more than these identities others give us, or that we give ourselves. Some of us are, at different points, all these and none of these — but that’s not the point. Who we are is much more than what we look like, or our abilities. In the same way, who these secret people are is much more than the sliver of their lives we share with you here. Some are pastors with families, others are 20-somethings trying to make it in the world. They are much more than the beauty-finder, or a good neighbor. Granted, we believe that these characteristics we share are of more importance in a person’s make-up than their looks or abilities, but it still does not incapsulate who they are fully — what we do on this website can’t, and so I decided not to try.
Instead, I set out to tell a small part of someones story. Something that has stuck out to me as being important, as counter-cultural -- defying of the age, if you will. That’s what I wanted to focus on. Not trying to wrap up a whole person in a webpage, but trying to show off a beautiful characteristic that they hold within themselves. And I do this so we all will look around with bigger and more focused eyes. So that we’ll let the fog clear and see that person in our community who is a beauty-finder, who stays, who smiles through pain, or who helps in subtle but profound ways. I do this so that it doesn’t become about the people I’m writing about,
Maybe I’m not defying the age. I started Secret People because of a frustration I had with our culture always seeking to put someone else up on the pedestal and equating success with money and fame. Here, we’re trying to redefine success. Here a successful life is one that roots for others, that champions a cause greater than themselves. Here a successful life isn’t about who you know or what you do, instead it’s a life that is built on character and grace.
That is why no one will be named here. It’s fun when people come to me and say they know who I wrote about one week, but, to me that’s not the point. Each of the people we have written about has more than understood that. Most of them have asked us to please not use their name. When they ask that I know — they are a secret person.