Song of the Week: The Police "Message in a Bottle"

It seems we're not alone in being alone.

Maybe you've read this story. It started with an entry on PostSecret.com, a website where people are invited to send in homemade postcards that reveal a secret they've never shared before.

One resonated with Ryan Paulson, a student at Dakota State University. It said, "I bought the coolest phone on the planet - but it still only rings as often as my old phone did."

Paulson posted a reply to the anonymous note: "I feel the same way. I often wonder why I even have a phone because I rarely receive calls." Then he decided to add his number: "If there was a way we could contact each other, that would be cool. My phone number is 605-212-7787."

"Within five, 10 minutes of putting it up, I'd already had a couple phone calls," Paulson says. "I was like, OK, a few people will call and maybe the one person who put it up there."

Little did he know.

From the news report:

Within the first couple of days, Paulson received 250 calls, so many that his voicemail told countless other callers that it could accept no more messages.

He has talked to people in almost every state, along with calls from Colombia, Scotland, England and Australia. He's talked with soldiers stationed in Iraq.

Paulson spoke for more than two hours with cousins conducting a conference call from North Carolina and Georgia. He spoke to a 45-year-old nontraditional student who shares his interest in art. He talked with a woman who had just put her children to bed.

And he learned he's not the only one out there who sometimes just wants to feel like someone out there cares.

Paulson, unknowingly, tapped into fears that many of us share: that in a busy, crammed-full life, no one remembers us; that our answering machines never flash because we simply don't matter to anyone; that in an era when communication with others is easier than ever before, we are communicating less and less.

Sensing that, Paulson took as many phone calls as he could, juggling them between his classes and his job. He also has tried to return the messages left on his phone.

Paulson hasn't heard from the one person he really wants to talk to, the man or woman who wrote, "I bought the coolest phone on the planet - but it still only rings as often as my old phone did."

At least, no one he talked to identified themselves as that person.

"It's very possible they could have called and not said that was who they were," he says. "In a way I can understand them not wanting to disclose who they are further, but I think it would have been really cool to talk to the person who wrote it in the first place."

Paulson does hope that someday he will talk to that person. He wants them to know how that postcard spoke to so many people.

He thinks it has changed and affirmed the lives of total strangers.

"I wasn't thinking of trying to change all these people's lives when I put that up there," he says. "I was just trying to say, 'Hey, I feel just like you do.' "

And for your soundtrack to this story, from 1979 here's "Message in a Bottle" by The Police. To listen, click on the audio player on the upper right corner of this webpage; the song will stay on the player for one week:

Just a castaway, an island lost at sea, oh
Another lonely day, with no one here but me, oh
More loneliness than any man could bear
Rescue me before I fall into despair, oh

I'll send an s.o.s. to the world
I'll send an s.o.s. to the world
I hope that someone gets my
I hope that someone gets my
I hope that someone gets my
Message in a bottle, yeah
Message in a bottle, yeah

A year has passed since I wrote my note
But I should have known this right from the start
Only hope can keep me together
Love can mend your life but
Love can break your heart

I'll send an s.o.s. to the world
I'll send an s.o.s. to the world
I hope that someone gets my
I hope that someone gets my
I hope that someone gets my
Message in a bottle, yeah
Message in a bottle, yeah
Message in a bottle, yeah
Message in a bottle, yeah

Walked out this morning, dont believe what I saw
Hundred billion bottles washed up on the shore
Seems I'm not alone at being alone
Hundred billion castaways, looking for a home

I'll send an s.o.s. to the world
I'll send an s.o.s. to the world
I hope that someone gets my
I hope that someone gets my
I hope that someone gets my
Message in a bottle, yeah
Message in a bottle, yeah
Message in a bottle, yeah
Message in a bottle, yeah

Sending out at an s.o.s. . . .