Whatever happened to diaries?
Whatever happened to diaries?
By: Bill Mead
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Posted by editor Tue Nov 30, 1999 00:00:00 PST
Viewed 626 times
0 responses 0 comments I'm beginning to think that hardly anybody keeps a personal diary anymore. That used to be a common practice. I remember when girls would write to Ann Landers complaining that their mothers had read their diaries and were shocked by some of the entries. World leaders of the past routinely kept diaries, which have proven a godsend to historians. I have the uneasy feeling those days are gone. I suspect that keeping a diary these days is about as common as dialing phone numbers.
When you have lived more than three quarters of a century, as I have, you wish mightily that you had kept some some kind of journal, jotting down the highlights and lowlights of your existence. In my case, a diary would have been especially valuable because we have moved a lot.
Every time we packed up, it seems, I threw away memorabilia that would have been useful in preserving memories. When my wife and I talk about the old days it is disconcerting to realize how little we actually remember. As I constantly remind our grandkids, the core of living is making memories. If you don't preserve them, what do you have left? If I could give young people just one suggestion for a more fulfilling life, it would be to keep a diary.
This isn't a new idea. One of the giants of literature is a man named Samuel Pepys who lived in England during the 17th century. The only reason he is remembered today is because he kept a diary for a short time. Pepys was a high civilian official of the Royal Navy but he isn't remembered for that. It is his daily jottings of ordinary life that has earned him historical significance on a par with Shakespeare. There is no reason to think that Pepys ever imagined that his homely comments about the daily goings-on of ordinary people at a certain place during a certain period would make such impact long after his death.
Pepys' diaries gave a human perspective to events of his era. I hate to admit this, but I find his stuff more interesting than Shakespeare's plays. You can judge for yourself by going to the internet and googling “Diary of Samuel Pepys.”
While some of his entries had to do with prominent people and weighty matters before parliament, Pepys was not a name-dropper. He was more prone to make mundane observations. He expressed irritation when he came home and found his wife gallivanting instead of fixing supper. He expressed fascination with a new invention of the period known as the slide rule, sounding much like a 21st century person who has just acquired the latest electronic gadget. He told of visiting friends in the midst of a domestic crisis, their adolescent son having “cut off his hair and put on a wig.” I suppose that would be the modern equivalent of finding marijuana joints in your kid's sock drawer.
Pepys and his wife never had children. His diary includes at least one reference to his wife's suggestion that she might be pregnant but a later notation makes clear it was a false alarm. In his terse commentary on the incident you can sense the sadness that so often has been the lot of childless couples over the ages.
I'm the last person who should be nagging other people to keep diaries. I have never done so, in spite of the fact that writing is my profession. Now it's too late for me but it might not be for you. I know you're busy but keeping a diary today is easier than ever. Instead of buying an expensive book and laboriously scribbling daily accounts, the home computer now allows you to do a weekly roundup of your activities as painlessly as writing an email to yourself. Your only expense would be loose-leaf binders to preserve your recollections.
I can't promise that future historians will find your diary entries as classic as those of Samuel Pepys but your descendents will be grateful to you.
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