Thursday, March 26, 2009

I survived my hand surgery. And during the several hours I spent at the hospital, lots of odd things happened. And I kept thinking to myself, "I cannot wait to blog about this."

And I will. Soon! But right now it's a little hard to type, and that post isn't going to be short. So for now, I just wanted to make a comment on something I was reading about and then thinking about.

I was just reading a book I have called Leaving a Trace, which just a little book about journal keeping. I've always kept journals. As a kid- I called it a diary. I've kept them for years and years and years. Sometimes I write daily, and sometimes I go for weeks without writing a thing.

In the book, Leaving a Trace, I was reading about the importance of knowing your journal is private and safe. It mentioned some funny things people have done to be sure that their journals aren't read by others. Da Vinci wrote in mirror messages. Anais Nin kept a "decoy" ciary for her husband. Others write in foreign languages, or on computers and use secretly coded file names, or by using private codes. I so related to this need for privacy, but have never really gone to any extent to lock things down, so to speak. I've sometimes wondered what's going to happen to my journals when I die. Will someone who loves me want to read them? And at that point, will I care? I think I sometimes hold back when writing in my journal- for fear that at some point, someone else will read my private thoughts. But to really, really use a journal properly, I should be as revealing as possible. Right?

I respect other's need for privacy, but I have to admit, if my mom had kept a journal, it would be so hard for me to resist the urge to read it. I'd just want to read anything she had to say.




No comments: