Spilling your guts in your notebooks

[Vramin]

I've kept notebooks and journals for years. I've captured all kinds of
thoughts, emotions, ideas, and activities on paper over the decades.
Naturally there are some activities documented there that I'm not
necessarily proud of, and opinions I have stated to myself that I would
really rather never got lifted out of context.

A friend of mine once told me you should never write anything down on
paper that you wouldn't want to see on the front page of the newspaper.
Sometimes I wonder what the value is in keeping these memoirs. Some day
I will be gone and these journals will literally make my life an open
book, if not before then.

How do you reap the full benefit of journaling and manage the risk of
exposure? It seems a paradox that oftentimes the most private of people
are the ones who like to keep journals, making a very public record of
their lives.

[Sam Beaven]

I have a kind of cipher - really, really poor penmanship, especially
when I get excited. I'm considering something more complex though -
mirror writing, maybe or perhaps a kind of specialized shorthand that
only I can read.

Anyway. Journals are only public if they get into the public domain,
so depending on how important they are to you, it might be worth
locking them up, and maybe putting a provisio in your will to have
them burned when you die.

Really, though, most of this is only really important if you're
either famous, stupendously rich, or rather naughty. I can't imagine
many people would pore through page after page of what-I-had-for-
breakfast-this-morning just to get to some potentially juicy blackmail.

[Daly de Gagne]

I have this concern also. I write about interactions with people, including family. I fear that something I wrote could be misunderstood or hurtful if read after I die, even though it was not necessarily meant in a negative way.

On the other hand, I would like to have my family read some aspects of what I wrote.

And on a third hand, there is the point that some of the stuff in my life that could be misunderstood is exactly what I want to/need to process by writing.

So your question is one I have often struggled with.

Daly

--
Discuss and learn about David Allen's Getting Things Done:
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[Maria]

> A friend of mine once told me you should never write anything down on
> paper that you wouldn't want to see on the front page of the newspaper.
> Sometimes I wonder what the value is in keeping these memoirs. Some day
> I will be gone and these journals will literally make my life an open
> book, if not before then.

I disagree. I think everyone needs an outlet, a safe and legally
acceptable outlet. For those of us given the gift of expressing
ourselves with words, our outlet is through pen, pencil, paper or
keyboard. The value is having that one avenue where we are safe to be
ourselves, safe to express without fear of causing pain. I know a
Benedictine priest who has an agreement with a friend to destroy all of
his journals after his death. Maybe that should be your "lock" on your
journals - make sure a trusted friend will destroy them once you're
gone.

As far as concerns about family members - is there enough truth in your
relations with them to avoid this? If you find yourself living a lie,
then examine it. Is there something that needs to be said? I can't
please everyone and can't befriend everyone. It's hard to live by that
realization. But your journals are YOUR journals. Your safe place. Your
thoughts, pains, joys. Include compassion, if you write about someone
that annoys you.

> How do you reap the full benefit of journaling and manage the risk of
> exposure? It seems a paradox that oftentimes the most private of people
> are the ones who like to keep journals, making a very public record of
> their lives.

Maybe the most sane people are the ones who write about their lives and
better understand themselves. The risk of exposure? The risk of setting
yourself free by being truthful in writing and in your lives. I can't
be anyone else than who I am. Thanks be to God.