Keeping a journal

[Queen Moon]

I have journaled since 1974.

 

My SO knows where I keep my journal / journals but has never read them. I think he knows that he would soon be ex-SO if he did.

 

He asked me to read his diary. I did and felt :embarrassed_smile: the whole time like I was doing something wrong.

[Treecat]

My husband knows I keep a journal. With a minimum amount of digging, he could probably dig it out of the bookcase shelf and read it. I don't think he has any interest. It bores me sometimes... I do temper some of my thoughts though. You never know what friend or family member might be called in to help clear out the house if you're knocked over by a bus in the street. Since I wouldn't be around to explain why I was ticked off with them, why I thought they should do this when they did that, I take a little care with that. I plan to burn all my journals and letters when I'm 75.

[DrScott]

Personally, I feel that if you are going to journal, it should be all or nothing. One of the beauties of journaling, for me at least, is that it provides a record of your own development over time. I really enjoy going back a few years and reading my thoughts or my interpretation of events. If you are constantly policing your writing to ensure that it is P.C., how will you ever know how you have changed? All those potentially embarrassing or risque tidbits that have made you the person you are today would have disappeared into the ether (or, if you have really good memory, bits and pieces may reside your own mind, but with a wholly different interpretation).

 

A journal is at its core all those things that make up your being in a visceral and tangible medium. If my significant other couldn't love the journals, then they could not love me -- we are one in the same.

[Treecat]

I see what you mean, DrScott, and it honestly doesn't bother me. I don't feel that I censor that much. I'm comfortable with what I put into my journal. It reflects what I do everyday, what I experience, what annoys me and what I'd like to see changed. I do get in my rants and raves on things. I manage to do that without saying "my husband acted like an (censored for family oriented online forum) today." Even if he has.

 

We all have to determine what we want to accomplish with keeping a journal, what might happen if other people read it, or even whether the journal is worth keeping 10 years down the road. I don't think my journal suffers from the occasional mindfulness that someone I deeply care for (whether family member or friend) might read an entry about them (while tossing out my stuff) and that entry might be one of the memories about me that they carry away with them. A lot of the time it's not what you say, but how you say it.

[WhosYerBob]

My early journals were quite private - much to my chagrin later when they were read by others that weren't intended to be reading them. Now I don't put that level of detail into them anymore.

[all my hues]

Personally, I feel that if you are going to journal, it should be all or nothing. One of the beauties of journaling, for me at least, is that it provides a record of your own development over time. I really enjoy going back a few years and reading my thoughts or my interpretation of events. If you are constantly policing your writing to ensure that it is P.C., how will you ever know how you have changed? All those potentially embarrassing or risque tidbits that have made you the person you are today would have disappeared into the ether (or, if you have really good memory, bits and pieces may reside your own mind, but with a wholly different interpretation).

 

A journal is at its core all those things that make up your being in a visceral and tangible medium. If my significant other couldn't love the journals, then they could not love me -- we are one in the same.

 

Right on Couldn't agree more.

[McPete]

I am required to keep a journal for work, and it is fully auditable, so privacy isn't really an option. Been toying with the idea of keeping a personal one too though.

[Nibby]

I keep a journal but not on a regular basis. In fact, I tend to only record some of the more important times in my life. I only wish I had enough time to sit down daily and record even the routine affairs of my life. It would be interesting to review in years to come. I tend to write very private information in my journal and not that I don't trust my SO, but I do lock it in my slope lap desk.

[phiredog]

My first post (I think :hmm1: ) - anyway. I keep multiple journals. One I use to record my thoughts, struggles, daily events, meditations, etc. that I don't particularly want to share. However, if the kids want to read it after I'm dead and gone - it may fill in some gaps as to why some things happened in my life. My second journal is a creative journal - I tape in clippings or mementos from my travels, write haiku (which my kids wish I would keep private), practice uncial script, doodle, etc. It's fair game; as a matter of fact, most members of my family roll their eyes when I begin to show them something new I've entered. A third journal I use for my Sunday School lessons/thoughts. I like the idea that a previous poster wrote about keeping a journal about their spouse. I may do that with a journal I'm trying to make from old, to be discarded paper.

 

 

[Agnium]

I got a few. (I have too many books open ugghhhhh) I've been keeping paper journals for a few years, and my first one (Written on loose leaf. Hundreds and hundreds of sheets filled with garbage.) I think I'll just throw into a little hole and burn when I remember to do it. I think I'll keep my almost-equally-crappy composition book journals, though. Might as well. In my first journals, not only was I a little jerkass, I didn't discriminate against any kind of poop that came into my brain! This was such a bad habit on so many levels (Mainly involving attention issues.).

 

Now I'm using an all-purpose small Moleskine (That might be 1/3-1/4th full and has already taken a savage beating somehow.) that I put important notes in, a 2009 French Ornate Silk PaperBlanks day planner for general happenings and kind of a back-calendar that is very useful for reference, general pretty-important yet general things go in a Plan Ahead leather-like 5x7-ish journal, and petty little turds and things my associates should probably not know about go in a small black Markings journal. I got some "paper RAM" notebooks lying around; I should probably copy them into the according books and cross out the roughs. Everything goes in the paper RAM.

 

While I was once really paranoid because I'm just naturally nervous and around puberty and early adolescence, kids just get really emo and borderline crazy about privacy (Which is not cool to poke them. Remember the pain of being prodded and invaded when you was a little emo paranoid kid, too?), I've really calmed down a lot (And have taken security pre-measures, so I'm confident nothing bad will happen. I've already magically narrowly avoided that, but thankfully my parents do respect privacy both ways.).

 

Still, I would not ever read someone's journal if they dropped it. I'd check the inside cover if they weren't around, for contact info, but I would not ever read it. Just because I've calmed down doesn't mean it's fine for everything. Tragically, not everyone I know seems to realize this, and can get really huffy and try to argue with me about it...

 

+: I write two lines per ruling, or pretty small if there is no ruling. My Moleskine, come to think of it, may be getting a beating with only gradual filling because I use Rapidographs sizes .13-.25 (Mainly to avoid bleeding.) and that really stretches it out (And adds security! I can write in public without fear!). In my big main journal, I go for something that is like .7 (And I just use my dip pens and odd India mixes. Got used to it. Having fun.)

 

In the past I would be dissatisfied with only using one line per ruling. It looked so empty, and wide rule was such a drag. And much, much later a light came on in my head that said "hey, why not write two lines per ruling!". Now my pages look so rich and black and full, and my books last twice as long! Now anything less is a horrible, shameful waste.

Edited March 11, 2009 by Agnium

[chud]

I think I've probably said this before, but it's actually pretty difficult to keep a book private from someone who's interested and determined. For most of us, we're not really up against anyone interested and determined, so things like the lock on a writing slope or putting it in a non-obvious place work perfectly well enough.

 

The methods for protecting information that are both inexpensive and very effective tend to be limited to electronic media - encryption is really what it boils down to.

 

As with all security decisions, it comes down to a balance between the cost of the security and the cost of its failure. In my case, and for most of us I suspect, the cost of its failure (i.e. someone reading the journal) is not actually all that high, so elaborate security isn't really worth it. But although I do write pretty openly, I still do so with the awareness that it might be read sometime without my permission.

[blackranger63]

I was on and off, but not back on. My inspiration: Ronald Reagan. I am currently reading the "Reagan Diaries" and I must say it is amazing. To relive history through the words of one of the most influential men of his time is quite fascinating. And though I don't aspire to the Reagan heights my inspiration comes from the thought that one of the most powerful men in the world took time out everyday for 8 years (with the exception of when he was shot and in the hospital) to reflect on his day leaves me excuseless!

 

Regards,

 

Tony

[LedZepGirl]

I never share my journal with anyone, but I don't hide it. I usually just keep it in my desk or under the bed with a few other books just so they are out of the way and don't get stepped on. I stared keeping a journal when I was 14 and was having a lot of problems related to growing up and problems at school. I use to share some of my entries back then too, with my best friend and with a cousin who's like an older sister to me. But now I just keep them to myself.

[TwilightFury]

I have this fantasy which I'm fleshing out into a short story about a number of people who aren't really luddites, but who keep up with the "analog" things while the rest of the advanced electronic world looks down on them for their quaint and curious little hobbies. "A typewriter? A fountain pen? Just use your computer or your PDA!" Well, when "the event" happens and the internet goes down, and other such unfathomable things, who's going to pull civilization out of the depths of despair? That's right. The analog people. People who have pens and ink, people who remember what it's like to chop firewood and to build a fire over which to cook. People who understand the workings of a combustion engine that doesn't require a computer to regulate. People who kept a small selection of cherished bound books printed on paper as a "backup" to their electronic collections. People who remember how to build, and repair, and develop the actual technologies rather than just being somewhat clueless and becoming reliant on it.

 

And so on.

 

So, txinsk, I think I get what you're saying.

 

I love my typwriter and my fountain pens. Three cheers for this comment!

[TwilightFury]

This is a great thread! I've kept a written journal for 26 years, ever since I heard about Anne Frank.

I love looking at fancy journals at Barns & Noble, but the truth is, I feel more comfortable writing in plain composition notebooks. Reason being, I feel odd writing some of the things I do that can contain graphic detail or foul language (when the mood strikes), and somehow it feels profane to write such things on fancy paper. I know, may sound silly, but there it is. hehe

So I keep a composition book in my backpack with me and a second spiral notebook at home for deeper more therapeutic writing.

[Dimitri]

I think I am doing something wrong, had this Journal since December 20th 2008, and finally filled up my first 5x8" page of "journalling". Sadly the entries about todays news at work and yesterday took up most of that page.

 

As for it bring private. If one can figure out what I am talking about (most of it is very short form in a single line or 2 at the most per entry) or see something "juicey" in my journal they are plenty welcome to ask about it. Not going to respond with a answer but its up to them. :ltcapd:

 

Dimitri

Edited March 19, 2009 by Dimitri

[chud]

I think I am doing something wrong, had this Journal since December 20th 2008, and finally filled up my first 5x8" page of "journalling". Sadly the entries about todays news at work and yesterday took up most of that page.

 

Nothing wrong about that. It's your journal; fill it with as much or as little as you like, about whatever you like...

[all my hues]

What's better than journaling?

 

Shopping for a new journal.

:clap1:

 

 

[Ledjeffelin]

The thought has crossed my mind that the "therapy journals" when found by relatives after the writer's death (children being the biggest concern - even if adults) could be damaging.

 

 

I use a journal to write about many things, but mostly I use it as a kind of therapy. As a result I often write entries that are very personal. Many of my writings are personal enough that I would not want others to read. As a result I keep my journal in a place that no one else knows about, not even my wife. In fact, my wife doesn't even know that I keep a journal. What about the rest of you? Is your journal off limits to everyone, or do you share your personal writings with others?

Edited March 22, 2009 by Ledjeffelin

[globetrotterjon]

Anything really sensitive, I write in Russian or Swedish...