On Diaries
I don't think I've written on this yet. I planned to way back when I finished reading Surprised by Joy and was delighted by all the similarities I found with C.S. Lewis in those areas for which people have always looked at me strange -- like finding funerals personally pointless[1] and having no sense of large numbers of people struggling[2].
But this is an area where C.S. Lewis and I are very different. He -- especially after his conversion from theism to Christianity -- found no use for diaries, calling them a "time-wasting and foolish practice."
Now, as a boy, I never admitted to keeping diaries; I kept journals. But I have kept journals for a long time. I find them immensely helpful and useful, not at all a waste of time. For me, the memory of who I was is important. I think memory makes us who we are.[3] Now, perhaps I am deceiving myself and the whole idea of diaries is simply egotistic, as Lewis seemed to think. But I think it would be hard to convince me of that.
However, I have never written to "Dear Diary." For some reason, I have never been able to write to no one. I've always had to write to someone -- even if they were letters to people that I never sent. I wrote an "autobiography" to unknown readers when 8. I often wrote letters to God. In college, in my creative writing course, we were encouraged to write daily and to do this via journals. So I did. My journals in college were all addressed to my then unknown future wife. (I still keep journals for sadeyedartist even after being married that we exchange every week.)
When sadeyedartist, two years ago, shared this concept of LJ to me, it seems the perfect way of journaling. Here, I could jot down my thoughts, catalog them for easy access, and get feedback. And little did I know how much knowledge was to be gained from reading the journalings of others.
Journaling allows me to better comprehend and process my own thoughts and allows me to test them on others. It strengthens my core beliefs and modifies the ones that were faulty to begin with. I see this as a great betterment to me as a person.
Frankly, I cannot fathom what Lewis was thinking on this point....Edit: added links
But this is an area where C.S. Lewis and I are very different. He -- especially after his conversion from theism to Christianity -- found no use for diaries, calling them a "time-wasting and foolish practice."
Now, as a boy, I never admitted to keeping diaries; I kept journals. But I have kept journals for a long time. I find them immensely helpful and useful, not at all a waste of time. For me, the memory of who I was is important. I think memory makes us who we are.[3] Now, perhaps I am deceiving myself and the whole idea of diaries is simply egotistic, as Lewis seemed to think. But I think it would be hard to convince me of that.
However, I have never written to "Dear Diary." For some reason, I have never been able to write to no one. I've always had to write to someone -- even if they were letters to people that I never sent. I wrote an "autobiography" to unknown readers when 8. I often wrote letters to God. In college, in my creative writing course, we were encouraged to write daily and to do this via journals. So I did. My journals in college were all addressed to my then unknown future wife. (I still keep journals for sadeyedartist even after being married that we exchange every week.)
When sadeyedartist, two years ago, shared this concept of LJ to me, it seems the perfect way of journaling. Here, I could jot down my thoughts, catalog them for easy access, and get feedback. And little did I know how much knowledge was to be gained from reading the journalings of others.
Journaling allows me to better comprehend and process my own thoughts and allows me to test them on others. It strengthens my core beliefs and modifies the ones that were faulty to begin with. I see this as a great betterment to me as a person.
Frankly, I cannot fathom what Lewis was thinking on this point....Edit: added links