50 Year Old Housewife

Chapter 8 Invitation to Insight

Question 1: The woman who sent out the postcard, disclosed the information in the form of catharsis disclosure. I came to this conclusion because the secret is pretty harmless but she seems to have an urge to let it off her chest as if it were bothering her. Understandably, the woman feels a rush of excitement of living a double life; by being able to write to PostSecret anonymously the woman experiences emotional relief in a public and nonjudgmental way. However, if she did disclose this information with her grand-kids per say, she could experience both the emotional relief and possible admiration on their end. 

Question 2: I think the reason she chose to keep her identity private was to maintain a certain perspective others might have of her. For example, if she holds herself as a serious, reputable woman she might not want her neighbors to know she has acted childlike and leave a negative impression on them. She might also hurt her relationship with her neighbors, after all the neighbors' have rounded up the leaves just to find they were scattered along their yards, once again. If they were to find out she did it, they might expect her to clean their yards or might even seek means to get even with her. So in fact, the risks do outweigh the benefits to disclosing this type of information with her neighbors or older friends as opposed to younger family members.

Question 3: As of now, I don't believe there is a moral obligation for the woman to come clean about her joy rides. However, this could change with further context. If another person was being blamed and fined for her joy rides then there would be a moral obligation to tell the truth before an injustice occurred.  

http://postsecret.com/