RE: Aging and Writing Memoirs: The Process of Remembering
my life simply hasn't been interesting enough to warrant writing about
I believe that every life is interesting in its own way. Imagine a new born child today, reading your stories when they're 30. What would your grandchildren think of a life growing up without mobile phones, the internet or wearing a face mask?
I am similar to you in that I keep book(s) that I reflect in. Write about what's on my mind. It's drivel, junk. Often rambled and meaningless like the content I share here. But one day, perhaps in 100 years, somebody will pick it up and wonder why it is hand written. Intrigued by the strange writing as if they were hieroglyphs. Why did I write entire words when there's an entire txt spk language available? What's Fantasy Football and why did he get so angry about it?
Who was this "denmark guy"? What did he like? What's his story? Where was he from 😉
I recently watched a programme about HS2 and the archaeological digs that were happening. The way family lives were pieced together to tell a story about people we never knew, have no reason to know was in itself interesting. This is what you journal / memoires is leaving behind.
Whilst you are remembered, you are never gone.
I appreciate the thoughtful comment @the-gorilla!
Personally, I do find people's stories fascinating... particularly when they come from an era long gone. I have old family photo albums that also include "letters home" from early 1930's vacations across Europe... and it's fascinating to see just how different things were, back then.
Interesting what you were saying about our handwritten notes... there are already many kids now who simply cannot read cursive writing. In fact, our kids — in their early 30's — even struggle a bit with handwriting from the early 1900's.
Time seems to move "faster" these days... and so perhaps what we share "crosses more eras" than it once did. Personal computers were not "a thing" when I was little. Mobile phones were not "a thing" till I closed on age 30. I still hand write letters, sometimes, to some of my older relations.
I struggle to read my own handwriting let alone somebody else's 🤣
I'm "only" 40 and the changes in my lifetime are remarkable and as you suggest, accelerating - possibly beyond the point of benefitting society.
There will always be something special about sitting down and hand writing something. It will always be more considered, more thoughtful. If you (not you specifically 🙂) edit / delete something hand written like you would with an email (or post) then you'd likely run out of paper!!
I'd love for you to share some of your old letters home to hear what you wrote about. I remember the challenge of trying to work out what stamps were needed to get a letter from wherever I was home, always fearing that I hadn't bought enough and that they would never make it.
well said..