Post Secret

The Post Secret card that I chose to discuss is one on our class blog. It is the card that says, "I think God caused my accident to teach me not to be so vain." The picture depicts the face of a "once-attractive" teenage boy being pulled away from the face of a now "un-attractive" disfigured boy. The old face shadows the new face, almost like a dark, gloomy ghost haunting the boy. As the audience, my first instincts tell me that he was involved in an automobile accident, possibly one caused by drunk driving or some sort of recklessness. The faces look young, which might imply the haphazardness and carefree spirits of many teenagers. The black and white, cloudy background of the photo also helps create a somber, regretful tone to the card. The boy has been physically disfigured because of this accident, and his old appearance is something that he misses, but will unfortunately never have back.

The overall message of this card is that God gives us one chance on this Earth, and it is up to us to maximize our time here. Beauty is fleeting, so why waste our time worrying about it? The textual support here is the exact quote from the boy. He is implying that God has punished him for being vain. If this were the case, probably each and every human being would have been in some sort of accident or unfortunate, harmful circumstance at one point or another; because, unfortunately, practically everyone is vain. The more implicit, underlying claim is that our time here is short, and we must each live up to our own potentials while we have the chances. People should not waste their precious time looking in the mirror or worrying about what other people think, because in the blink of an eye, it could all be gone.