What Would You Leave For Prosperity?

[Pussinboots]

Just wondering this after recently looking through my late Auntie's personal things for the purpose of my family history project. There were four of us, me, my brother, my sister in law and cousin look through personal letters and diaries and it was truly fascinating. There were no secrets that emerged and nothing to shock us but it does make you wonder how vulnerable your personal things become once you've gone. If you do have things you would rather people not read, is it best to not keep them?

[pajaro]

Just wondering this after recently looking through my late Auntie's personal things for the purpose of my family history project. There were four of us, me, my brother, my sister in law and cousin look through personal letters and diaries and it was truly fascinating. There were no secrets that emerged and nothing to shock us but it does make you wonder how vulnerable your personal things become once you've gone. If you do have things you would rather people not read, is it best to not keep them?

 

I had a writing where I wrote some personal recollections from a relationship in my twenties. After I got married, I tore those pages out and burned them. There is some kind of line between recording your personal feelings and all of it being nobody's business but your own.

[tinta]

After I turn my toes, I do not care who will read my journals or my correspondence.

[gweimer1]

 

I had a writing where I wrote some personal recollections from a relationship in my twenties. After I got married, I tore those pages out and burned them. There is some kind of line between recording your personal feelings and all of it being nobody's business but your own.

 

Yep. I have gotten rid of a few years worth of past journals. They were very enlightening as I read through them, and my own words were telling me I had to make a change in my life. I have, and those parts of the past are no longer available for review. I know it saddened one person (who was the subject of most those words), but I have a future ahead, and the sun is shining again.

 

For prosperity, I will leave my children some money. For posterity, I leave all that my life has seen. I hope to have a long road ahead before then.

[Sandy1]

Hi,

 

Most of my stuff is in the hands of the recipients - I do not keep a journal.

 

Perhaps my accountant has records that reflect my actions in financial terms. (Oops!) Someone might feel the need to double check the vouchers for both ammo and shoes.

 

Bye,

S1

Edited May 20, 2017 by Sandy1

[praxim]

Can someone with Magical Mod Powers please change "prosperity" to "posterity" which is presumably what Pussinboots meant to write? At the moment it sounds like a straight line to which Bob Hope will rise from his grave to pronounce, "my wife".

 

When I am dead I will not be thinking, at all, so my only concern is not to damage other people's lives through something written which can not then be explained or unsaid. I have not deleted those few letters I have chosen to keep. They round out a life. It would be absurd for a later partner to be bothered by prior existence (which goes both ways -- it is not absolutely given that I will die first ).

[inkypete]

Just being a pedant. I think you mean prosterity (for future generations).

[Cryptos]

Just being a pedant. I think you mean prosterity (for future generations).

 

That's funny. Intentional or not.

 

Anyway, for posterity? I don't have anything written that is likely to survive me, other than professional work.

 

Having said that, I am tempted to put together an EmptyofClouds version of the Voynich manuscript. You know, to keep people busy and such.

[Studio97]

Armloads of my journals, boxes of drawings, sketchbooks, paintings on canvases, watercolor paintings, an archive of photos, street photography, Vietnam era stuff, military records and a hint that someone might learn something from it all and maybe entertained. And handle it respectfully. And I am adding to it daily

Edited May 21, 2017 by Studio97

[jmccarty3]

For prosperity, I'd leave my trailer park.

[Pussinboots]

Thanks for your replies and apologies for the spelling mistake

 

I too have thrown out years worth of journals and wonder if now I should write in my journal what I wouldn't mind others reading but I guess that's defeats the object of therapeutic journaling.

 

At the time when I wrote those past journals I didn't give a monkeys what anyone would think if they read them but then somehow being paranoid got in the way.

 

In your view what is the best way to keep a journal? I have so much I need to offload out of my system.

Edited May 21, 2017 by Pussinboots

[Miaxina]

I once got all too emotional and wrote "I hate my mum" in the first page of my "diary". Mum found out and she was so upset about it she said she'd give it to me on my wedding day (We are in a good relationship now, but I doubt I'll ever marry...). That was the last time I ever kept a diary. Threw every last one, not that there were so many, though. I did try to journal online on several sites/apps, but I just couldn't anymore >_<

 

I do want to give a try at scrap booking, that seems a little more..fun

[T4TEXAS]

I hope to shred anything that would cause family personal distress, as well as the truly mundane. Otherwise they should have some personal notebooks on events of the day, as well as notes on my faith. Some published work, and some not published.

Edited May 21, 2017 by T4TEXAS

[Studio97]

Thanks for your replies and apologies for the spelling mistake

 

I too have thrown out years worth of journals and wonder if now I should write in my journal what I wouldn't mind others reading but I guess that's defeats the object of therapeutic journaling.

 

At the time when I wrote those past journals I didn't give a monkeys what anyone would think if they read them but then somehow being paranoid got in the way.

 

In your view what is the best way to keep a journal? I have so much I need to offload out of my system.

Sometimes journaling could be therapeutic but for me it's recording my life. I dont plan on throwing away any of my journals. If a family member reads them now or later they will learn one thing: we are all flawed. No one is perfect and we have successes and failures, opinions and thoughts about anything in the world. Everyone else is no different. I have very little of paper records from my Dad and Grandfather. I learned something about them i cherish. And that was my catalyst to begin journaling decades ago. They are a record of my life and thoughts through and through. Keep them and pass them on. Edited May 22, 2017 by Studio97

[C-town]

I think that my journal writings containing personal thoughts etc. may prove interesting to people after me, or, at the very least, not at all disturbing. I don't have much to hide and reading my thoughts and feelings may bring solace to people who survive me. Hopefully, there will be people who care enough to read them of course! I'm 18 and hopefully a long way away from people reading through my journals.

 

I am reminded of the story of Captain Cook's wife who, shortly before her death, burned all of the letters she had received from Captain Cook during his voyages abroad. I respect her decision because the correspondence that she shared with her husband was no one's business but her own. IMHO it all comes down to what you are comfortable with. If the idea of people reading your reading disturbs you, go ahead and dispose of them. Otherwise, you will be handing down what may become an heirloom consisting of your mind put to paper.

[Martini25]

In my case, not really because I don't really journal but just write. Most of my "journals" are full of half baked ideas, half written stories, and snippets of fan fiction. I plan to write in my will that once I die, that my family piles up all my writing to form my funeral pyre. I have to enter the colorful Mexican land of the dead with stories to tell all my relatives!

 

But no, I hope that my siblings/family will honor my wish to not publish or make available anything of my writing that isn't already out in public. I prefer to take it with me. But I'll not be around so the chances are up in the air...that's why I'm leaving a list to my lawyer and trusted friend of things that NEED to be destroyed upon my death.

[Ergative]

I keep a journal, and I sort of tongue-in-cheek address it to my future biographers. I find that I really can't record the truly, truly personal stuff*, but I write down my thoughts about literature and politics and my job and the big events in my life, and comments about my relatives, and intersperse that with half-written fiction. I can't bear the thought of destroying them (so much nice ink!), and I don't think I'd object to anyone reading them after my death. Well, maybe not certain of my relatives, who don't come across too well, but since they're of the older generation it's not as if they're likely to be around after I die.

[Sasha Royale]

For "prosperity" ? NOTHING ! I intend to spend it all before I die.

For "posterity" ? I leave the following: "Don't hit people. Don't take their stuff." "Walk softly, and carry a big stick !" Also guns.

[Freddy]

Number 19

 

Worm Food

 

 

Fred

 

Strike a match and set me on fire Watch it burn And

 

flames gettin' higher You light me Up

 

Sweet old desire So won't you come close to my fire?