Conjectures of a recovering dilettante while traveling the road to Utopia
Question: Brother Giovanni, what do you think of keeping a personal journal? Good or bad idea?
Thanks you for the question. Let me start by saying personal journals are not for sissys.
Most of us agree that keeping a personal journal is a good thing. It also is appreciated by those you leave behind as an important part of their history and your legacy. The issue is always finding the time to do it, even though we may think about it frequently.
However, there comes a time when writing has to be about writing. Strange to state the obvious? Maybe so, but in reality we spend more time thinking about writing than actually doing it. This is why little is accomplished.
When you think of the great thinkers of history who left behind a legacy of written words that allow us to share and appreciate their wisdom, it is because they did their thinking and writing at the same time. And I consider this very good and something we should all do
And this is what the process of writing is about. Most of us think without writing. Writers think and write at the same time. For them, it is not two different processes.
There are some significant reasons why it is this way. Current research on how our brain works seem to bear this out. When you have a problem, and think it through and resolve it in your mind, your brain considers the problem solved.
This affects how much we remember about the thinking process that allowed us to come to a conclusion. Unfortunately, much of the actual process is lost.
And we must never forget that good writing (and thinking) is more about how we came to our conclusions rather than the conclusion itself. Authenticity and honesty count here - remember what I said before: "journals are not for sissies" - don’t write for history or anyone else. Write for yourself!
So if you don’t want to leave the best part of who you are to oblivion – go write and see how much satisfaction there is in actually doing it. You will be a better person because of the process.