Despite the sad tr
uth I wrote about yesterday to the effect that daily journals/twitters are often mundane, there are still many good reasons for keeping a journal.
Most of these were summed up by William Cobbett (1763 – 1835) an English journalist who promoted the parliamentary system, free speech, and the rights of the poor. He is best known for documenting horseback journeys published in 1830 as ‘Rural Rides’.
Here’s part of what Cobbett wrote in the un–catchily titled ‘Advice to Young Men And (Incidentally) to Young Women in the Middle and Higher Ranks of Life’ :
” Besides reading, a young man ought to write, if he have the capacity and the leisure. If you wish to remember a thing well, put it into writing, even if you burn the paper immediately after you have done; for the eye greatly assists the mind. Memory consists of a concatenation of ideas, the place, the time, and other circumstances, lead to the recollection of facts; and no circumstance more effectually than stating the facts upon paper. A journal should be kept by every young man. Put down something against every day in the year, if it be merely a description of the weather. You will not have done this for one year without finding the benefit of it. It disburthens the mind of many things to be recollected; it is amusing and useful, and ought by no means to be neglected. How often does it happen that we cannot make a statement of facts, sometimes very interesting to ourselves and our friends, for the want of a record of the places where we were, and of things that occurred on such and such a day! How often does it happen that we get into disagreeable disputes about things that have passed, and about the time and other circumstances attending them! As a thing of mere curiosity, it is of some value, and may frequently prove of very great utility. It demands not more than a minute in the twenty-four hours; and that minute is most agreeably and advantageously employed. It tends greatly to produce regularity in the conducting of affairs: it is a thing demanding a small portion of attention once in every day; I myself have found it to be attended with great and numerous benefits, and I therefore strongly recommend it to the practice of every reader”.
The vain or the famous may write for posterity, personalities from Susan Sontag to Tony Benn have famously recorded their daily lives not just as a personal aide-memoire but rather as a form of autobiography.
For the common herd (among whom I include myself), the likelihood of anyone else being fascinated by our daily actions is remote. Nevertheless I have tenaciously kept a diary for the best part of 15 years now and I regret a two year lapse when I moved from England to Italy. The turmoil of changing job,home, language and lifestyle was just too overwhelming to set down calmly in words at the end of each day.
Maybe one of the functions of journals is the idea that our lives will assume a kind of retrospective significance.
Whether it’s banal or breathtaking, what we are doing and what we did makes us what we are.
