Secret Thoughts of Travelers Revealed

Travel Blog • Terry Ward • 10.12.07 | 11:03 AM ET

PostSecret is one of those Web sites I wander onto and proceed to lose a good half morning. The site’s founder, Frank Warren, invites strangers to send him their deepest, often darkest secrets on a handmade postcard. The results range from enlightening to downright disturbing. So I was interested to see this recent Frequent Flier piece in the New York Times relaying the secret thoughts of travelers, as mailed to Warren.

Warren writes:

One postcard I received had a hilarious picture of two pilots jauntily walking through an airport in crisp suits. We all have seen these people. We have all been annoyed by these people. The secret on the card read, “Stop walking through the airport like you own the place!”

Another secret that arrived on a baggage claim ticket read: “You called me an idiot so I sent your bags to the wrong destination. WHOOPS! I guess you were right.”

Since I’m one of those people who watches fellow passengers at airports and wonders where they’re headed and why, I also appreciated hearing these PostSecrets:

On a photograph of empty terminal seats, I received the very sad missive: “Airports make me the most suicidal.” On a boarding pass, I read a secret of love lost, “I would have left home and flown 2430 miles with you if only you had asked.”

But perhaps the most enlightening message from the traveling world posted to Warren was the following admission, from a pilot: “When passengers ignore the ‘stay in your seats’ sign, I create my own turbulence.”

How’s that for food for in-flight thought?