Diaries and journals

Do young girls still keep diaries? Or, to be inclusive, even little boys? That treasured book that comes with a key so secrets can be recorded and locked away? So older siblings can search for it and tease or tell? I was thrilled to receive a pink and white one for my tenth birthday, but the novelty soon wore off and it was left unsecured and unused in a drawer. 

Since then, I've received and even purchased some lovely journals. Leather ones. Ones from museums whose covers boasted impressionist paintings. Some had blank pages; others were lined and had inspirational quotes above the gilt edges. But, try as I might, I could not consistently record anything of worth. My ordinary days didn't belong in such a beautiful edition. Mostly, I felt that there was somehow a right way to keep a journal that everyone else had figured out except me. Was it a particular type of pen or book? Did it matter when you spent time writing? Or where? I struggled with the details of the process rather than the process itself.

What got me thinking about diaries was discovering that much of the fascinating story of the Wright brothers in David McCullough's book comes from what was recorded in their and other family members diaries. Now, I've had dear friends who've told me that should anything happen to them, my job was to get to their journals before anyone in their family did, and destroy them. What if that had been true for Wilbur and Orville? Much of what we know about history, be it of a family or a country or an invention, comes from the written word of people of the time. We know what everyday life was like throughout the eras because of the men and women who wrote about the mundane as well as the extraordinary.

The other day when I did my occasional look onto FaceBook, I was told that it was 279 weeks since I'd posted anything. Many people may not think about the diary they are keeping on FB or other social media platforms. Future generations are going to have so much more to sift through to find reality than McCullough did. Most of what I have written personally for the past nearly seven years is what is recorded here in these weekly musings. There is no right or wrong pen, time of day to write. All I've needed is a glimpse of an idea and my keyboard. And access to the internet. And you. Someone to read this public diary I've created. Thank you.

Marilyn