Fate Of Your Pages

[Charles Skinner]

Keep them!!!!!! Please keep them!!!!!! It is a shame to waste such important writings! You may not think they are of any worth, BUT THEY CERTAINLY ARE!

 

C. S.

[drv1913]

I have diaries, calendars, school notebooks, research notes, rough drafts, to-do lists, meeting notes, and project checklists - not to mention photo albums and scrapbooks - going back to the early nineties. Actually, I still have scrapbooks from middle school and earlier. I am fascinated with my own scribblings, even though I seldom ever look at them again. I don't care what will happen to them after I'm dead because I'll be dead. I suspect that they'll be leafed through and then eventually discarded, but who knows? Maybe someone will be interested in the glamourous life of an introverted homebody loner recluse curmudgeon bookworm with fabulous hair and mad baking skillz.

[Runnin_Ute]

I am certainly 100% in the keep them camp. Of course, I have 30 years worth of notes and things in my Franklin Planner. I started using it in January 1986, and still have every volume. I don't often go back to them, but will on occasion.

 

I also have a journal I kept while serving as a Mormon missionary in Texas from 1979-1981. You know what I regret? Not having journaled more during that time. I was always sporadic at best, but from around July 1981 to the time I went home in September I made no entries. That is my biggest regret. A couple of years ago I went to look up something from that time period to refresh my memory and it wasn't there. Zero, Zip, Zilch, Nada.

 

I don't do enough now. And need to do more. I don't have children, but I would hope that when I pass that my siblings and nieces and nephews would care enough to at least peruse those things that I have written. Whether it happens or not remains to be seen. I was raised in an environment that said a personal history (and that is we are talking about here) is a very important thing.

 

Just think that if someone like Leonardo DaVinci, or Michelangelo or Christopher Columbus didn't keep a journal? What history would be lost - or never known about? We would be poorer as a society. This has been in my thoughts lately as I am reading a biography of Columbus right now. It is fascinating.

 

Sure we may not have done the kinds of things that these men did and that a large part of the world cares about at some level, but someone cares about what we have done. And it might not be for a hundred years. Regardless of what we do. The good and the bad. The weird ink ramblings in multiple colors. Whatever.

[OCArt]

I would very much liked to have had a journal from either of my parents. It would be wonderful to see how they dealt with many off the same issues the I have. I would not expect the secrets of life-- just a brief glimpse into their personalities that I could see now that I am an adult.

[Arcadian]

I, too, find myself in the column of the keepers.

Overall I maintain four different sorts of notebooks: A Work related meeting-and-case-notes cum to-do list notebook; A personal pocket notebook for everything from jotting down memorable quotes to planning vacations to the genesis of business ideas; A diary; and a notebook for random writing for the mere sake of the feeling of pen on paper, and maybe practicing a bit of penmanship.

While the latter is of no interest to myself other than in the moment of using it, and therefore has no value to me after the fact, I would not part ways with any of the other three types, ever. I regularly find myself needing to look something up, and having the record of what I did when really helps. Moreover, I entertain the vain idea that some of my ideas might one day be of interest to someone else. As for my diaries, I mostly journal when travelling, and this is something that I have come to appreciate quite a bit. The first time was during a trip to Uganda. There were so many overwhelming impressions and wonderful people, and at the time I thought for sure that I would never forget any of it. A couple of years later I had to recount part of the experience, and found that I couldn't remember several names of the people I had met, and had confused the timeline of things. After that, I went back and read through my journal from Uganda, and it was incredible to see how much of what it contained that I had actually forgotten. Reading my descriptions and thoughts at the time brought it all back to me in vision-like detail, and from then on I have journalled as much as possible on every journey I have taken.

[Olya]

I keep much too. Sometimes I jot down important info etc. Useless stuff gets thrown out. Journals are usually kept, I use pretty notebooks/ journals which would be a shame to be thrown away and I like to flick through them, look at the ink and the sound of fully written pages is sth special too. Normally I don't put anything too embarrassing in writing and if I did I'd put it on a seperate page and get rid of that.

I think it's just a shame to throw away journals which look nice and all that pretty ink in there... One day, all the little treasures to us, will be junk to others anyway, so no reason really to worry about "when that time comes". In fact, I love love love finding any kind of journals from family members who are no longer with us, even when they just copied/ wrote down famous poems or lyrics, just to see their handwriting and know they used those pages and that it meant something to them is somehow more worth than many other things that were left behind, like old magazines, books etc.

[Charles Skinner]

I, too, understand that few people in the future will have much interest in what this poor earthen vessel has written. EVEN I rarely go back and read "my stuff." But, somehow, I just KNOW that what I write is important, if only for the moment it is written. Does that make any sense at all? I wonder. My journals ARE me! My life on paper. Who is or will be interested in MY LIFE? Very few if any. So, why write? I WRITE BECAUSE I MUST!!!!!!! To write is to live, and to live is to write. Writing puts a little of myself on paper. It is a way to prove that I ---- well, --- that I AM! Don't call the men from the "funny farm" after reading this! It is just an attempt to explain ---- to understand --- to understand my almost sixty years habit of "putting pen to paper." Write on into the bright day and don't run out of ink! C. S.

[snowbear]

The main writing I do now are instructions and details of what I am doing on the job (GIS analysis). Eventually the important notes will be converted to electronic format, and once I know the procedure well enough that I don't need to refer back to my scribbles, they will get pitched out.

 

Sketches and drawings will be kept, at least for a while.

[Goudy]

I keep mine. I've also inherited all of my grandfather's journals and I feel a responsibility to keep those, too. He had a fascinating life. He fought at Gallipoli, became a Metropolitan Police officer, a freemason (obviously) and an air raid warden during the Blitz. Unfortunately he didn't seem to keep a regular journal until after he retired, so the entries are mostly about going down to the corner shop for pipe tobacco, the state of his garden, and what he had for dinner.

[Studio97]

I keep my journals. I inherited some turn of the century early 1900s postcards written by my Grandfather and postcards written and sent to him. The tiny fine writing is much like a journal entry and opens a door to his time and life. They are priceless to me.

[Studio97]

I, too, understand that few people in the future will have much interest in what this poor earthen vessel has written. EVEN I rarely go back and read "my stuff." But, somehow, I just KNOW that what I write is important, if only for the moment it is written. Does that make any sense at all? I wonder. My journals ARE me! My life on paper. Who is or will be interested in MY LIFE? Very few if any. So, why write? I WRITE BECAUSE I MUST!!!!!!! To write is to live, and to live is to write. Writing puts a little of myself on paper. It is a way to prove that I ---- well, --- that I AM! Don't call the men from the "funny farm" after reading this! It is just an attempt to explain ---- to understand --- to understand my almost sixty years habit of "putting pen to paper." Write on into the bright day and don't run out of ink! C. S.

WRITE ON !!!!!

[estie1948]

I am just egotistical to think someone (siblings, kids, grandkids, et cetera) will want to read my scribbling. However, I am just realistic enough that, knowing all these people down through my grandkids, I know no one will have the slightest interest in anything I have written. This being the case, I don't worry about how silly my journal writings are, about the grammar, about the spelling, about how personal, or about anything else in them. When they are filled, I take them with me on a fishing or camping trip and let them contribute usefully to the cooking of whatever meal I am preparing.

 

My paternal grandmother did not feel she could throw away any personal letter written to her nor could she leave them where they might be read by someone else. She saved them in a shoe box. When the box was full, she filled her bath tub with water and put all the letters in for a nice long soak. She then took the waterlogged paper out of the tub, squeezed out the water, and shaped the mushy paper into pen holders, Kleenex box covers, flower holders, wastebaskets, and such. The different colors of inks and papers made for some very colorful creations. She was one of the original recyclers.

 

I, unlike my grandmother, don't have to worry about what to do with my personal letters. I receive almost none. While I write quite a few letters to different people, they always respond with a phone call, an e-mail, a text, or no response at all.

 

So, I am one for the do not save camp.

 

-David (Estie).

[Studio97]

Were it not for the entries on old postcards I would never have known that my grandfather worked at a lumber company that had its own housing, post office and post mark and on old Missouri maps : King Bee Mo. The town is gone but memories are preserved. I'm for keeping journals.

[clazbill]

History is full of 'writings of important people' - but often those don't include mundane, day to day things that bring context to the times. People writing things down like a shopping list are unimportant in the moment, but not so unimportant years later.

 

Then again, we're storing so much more electronically nowdays, so this might not have any worth anymore, but I keep it in mind.

[MoonMan]

I have always kept journals but not always written in them every day. That didn't start until I got into fountain pens. For better or worse, I keep mine, There's a lot of deeply personal revelations-some I now keep in a lock box in my closet, others are stuffed in drawers. It's interesting to me to see what I was doing a year or more ago, what I was feeling, what was going on. There are some people who would be beyond mortified reading some of what I've written but I figure when I'm dead, what do I care? It's probably goig to be some clean up crew who disposes of this stuff so if they read it, more power to 'em. They'll just think this is one guy that came from a messed up family.

[Charles Skinner]

I have never felt a need to write "every day." My guess is that I write about five days a week, most weeks. It all depends on how much time I have. Going on with that thought. ---- At times I write about things that happen a six months or a year ago, or even things I remember from my childhood. I suggest that journal writers not be bound by "every day" thinking. Your thoughts? C. S.

[MoonMan]

Hi Charles,

 

I didn't write every day until I got into fountain pens. Before it was anywhere from once a week to several times a month or whenever the urge arose. But now with a failing father and failing cat...it's little things I like to keep track of and the novelty of the fountain pen hasn't' worn off yet. Not sure it will, least I hope it won't. Writing with one of these fine, fine instruments is so very soothing, especially when you're flowing from a butter smooth nib (which I found, much to my surprise) was the case with a Nikko G nib...never thought a pointed pen could write like butter but that one sure does.

[Charles Skinner]

For me, my journal writing and my love of fountain pens are "joined at the hip." If I had not been a fountain pen person, I likely would have never carried journal writing this far, ---- and likewise, if I had not been a journal writer, I feel sure that real fountain pens would not have becomes such an important part of my life. "JOINED AT THE HIP!" C. S.

[Fuzzy_Bear]

My journals are very personal in nature. They are documents of my life. Good times on vacation, even writing while on vacation. And bad times, like fighting with my wife. It and include a small prayer about what I've written as the final piece of a journal entry.

 

They are kept in a 1950's fire safe.

[HanhPhuc]

My journals are semi-personal. I make it a habit to write at least a few lines per day

I usually include the weather, what's on the news and anything important that happened that day.

 

I can't really bring myself to toss them out. I keep all of my old school journals and notes in a couple of cardboard boxes. I guess I feel like I devoted a good amount of time into them so it's a waste to toss them out. They seldom get pulled out unless an underclassmen wants to borrow them.

 

It's selfish of me to think that someone will want to read my rambling sometime in the future, but if someone does, I hope they get a nice experience out of it and learn a little bit about me and the time we're living in right now