To Write, To Pen, To Consider

To write, to pen, to consider…

Just thinking, as I do upon occasion, on writing. Today, on journaling, one’s personal diaries of thoughts, desires, and deeds. What is the value of writing out one’s thoughts. The ‘diary’ is not just a teen-aged girl’s documentary of travails. Admirals and generals and great persons of noted character journaled. John and Abigail Addams journaled in their literal conversations: he at the Capital, she at home in Massachusetts. Journaling can be somewhat the ‘pensieve’ of JK Rowling’s wizards in Harry Potter’s world: pulling out a thought with the wooden stick for later review.

I am unsure of the objective at times. Is the private diary just that? A letter to one’s self? Or is it a two sided conversation with one’s self? Is it the catharsis of mental gurgitation thrown out upon a page? Or a blog, no longer secret?

The ultimate in vanities: to write a diary on the internet as if all the world must care.

I am not saying that “blogging” is bad nor all vanity. Blogs give a voice to those who may not be heard otherwise.

Vainglorious writing to self-adjulate is more vanity than I can take.

So, back to writing, penning, and considering.

Writing has lost its “art form” that once was thought to be required to be considered educated. When I read letters, essays, and stories written 100 or more years ago the English language usage is markedly different. Some will argue that language is vibrant and changing with each generation. To an extent this is true. Consider this also, the Gaelic language survives today, and its culture, due to being written down.

Language as a media of communication is being taught more than language as a media of expression. If the act is merely to convey data then extraneia is not needed. However, if mood, inflection, intensity, deliberation are nuances desired in the conversation then flowers and flavors must be added back to writing and speech. Perhaps the medaphor and analogy should return to add color to an otherwise drab canvas of communication.

Penning things have likewise gone into disuse and near past tense. Not just legible caligraphy but the actual word usage. Electronic communication has made “texting” a subset of the main language. Texting has dumbed down even further the nuance study and use of letters, papered missives of communication. Letters were once a thing savored, highly sought and cherished. Now, I am not so certain the next generation, or the one following, will understand their value.

To consider implies one gave thought to whatever it was that was considered. When the value of the media was costly to produce, people would consider well their words prior to penning them. Now there is a backspace key or an erase option. The media is electronic, and no “e-trees” were harmed in the deletion of the e-mail. It has become easier to respond “lol” or “rotfl” whether it was done in the actual or not. Consideration of response was not heavily considered.

All this started as a thought while I reflected on the use and vanity of my own journal. I even went so far as to invent my own alphabet to encrypt it. I can say whatever I want in my journal with no fear or likelihood that it will ever be read, but I still find myself being guarded. I realized some day someone just might get interested enough to decipher what I wrote, then all my encrypted thoughts would be laid bare. And therein lies my vanity; that someone would read my journals before the paper upon which they were written becomes dust.

Perhaps King Solomon was right in his observation: all is vanity, all is grasping at air.

There’s something to consider in your journals, your personal diaries, your blogs. Just enjoy the process. It will be meaningless, in time, to everyone who is not you.