I’m curious because I’m undecided. I suppose it greatly depends upon the nature of your writing.
My journals are completely uncensored and raw. They contain my deepest and darkest thoughts, fears, opinions and (ahem) an occassional sexual fantasy. I imagine they would manage to shock and offend every important person in my life if they were to read them - I’ve blown off my share of steam in them. I’ve always assumed I would have them destroyed after my death.
But a part of me thinks it would be interesting to share that person with the world. I’d be dead, so who cares, right? Would my elderly wife chuckle at my youthful misdeeds or be hurt? Would a great-grandchild want to read about life way back in the 1990s?
It’s a large body of work with an occassional gem (I think)and it seems such a waste to destroy it, although I’m sure it would be of interest to no more than a few people. Maybe I’ll seal for 50 years and hope my ancestors find it to be an interesting historical document. Your plans?
I’ve been thinking of this very thing lately. But your OP is oddly phrased: What makes you think you’d be able to decide the fate of your journal after you’re dead?
I can’t bear the thought of anyone ever reading some of the things I’ve written in my diary. In fact, I’m so paranoid that I’ll die tomorrow and leave horrid secrets for the taking, that I think I subconsciously censor my writings.
I think sharing my diary after my death is the best way to go. Yeah, some parts are embarrassing, others are funny/ filled with sadness. Regardless, it’s who I am and sharing that might help my loved ones when I die. Currently, in my will I grant access to my diary to friends and family. It doesn’t matter what people read about me, it just matters that they know how much I love them. That is apparent throughout my diaries. Remembering the good times and stupid fights will keep me alive in their memories.
When I almost died three years ago, I remember being overwhelmed with regrets (on top of the pain and fear, of course). Since I was able to survive, I have decided that I won’t live a regret-filled life anymore. I have written letters to people important to me in th event of my death in case my diary doesn’t get read or gets misunderstood.
I use mine sporadically at best, mostly personal stuff. Sometimes writing things down makes things clearer for me. The thing is, it’s not a neat or attractive process. It’s weird reading back and getting a perspective on exactly how clueless, self-deceiving, etc. I was.
My journals aren’t Mary Chesnut material. I may rant about some issues of the day that torque me off but nothing shatteringly insightful or meaningful. I can’t imagine that anyone would find my ramblings all that interesting. They’re written for me, no one else, so into the flames they go.
I keep an occasionally updated (every couple weeks or so) text document hidden deep in my computer under PGP encryption. Whenever I want to write something I decrypt it, write, then reencrypt it and wipe that part of the hard drive.
If I still have it saved someplace when I’m older I just won’t let the password out until I die.I’d love to have people expect it to be something major revealed when its mostly basic things I did in recent history. In all likelyhood, though, I’ll come across another way to store that kind of info or I just will not write.
I’ve specified that my partner can give them to a friend who studies women’s lives. That friend can keep them or donate them to any organization that archives primary source material for future historical work.
Should any of you ever want to give your journal/diary to prosterity, I suggest you contact your local Historical Society.
I work in a musem. Diaries and journals are precious to us, because they record feelings, impressions and thoughts that we can’t get from any other source.
We were actually talking about this the other day. The librarian expressed regret that future generations aren’t going to have as many diaries to study because so few people keep them anymore, and even fewer think to donate them to museums. (They are usually tossed in the trash by the heirs who clean out the house after the owner dies.)
Likely, your local museum has a dearth of modern diaries/journals. People never seem to donate modern items.
I kept written dairies through most of high school, all of college and through my first marriage. I ran across them a couple years ago and reread some of them and decided I didn’t want anyone to find them so I tore them up and tossed them. All 4 complete books.
There were the typical teenage angst type things in the high school one. They were silly and fun to read but just your average stupid kid type stuff.
The two college ones were far more detailed. Lots of stuff that I wouldn’t want either of my sons to read about their mother.
The one during my first marriage/pregnancy/divorce was painful to read but made me able to look back on where I was then and where I am now and made me feel strong. Getting rid of it made me feel like there was closure at last in a way.
Plus, in the marriage one there were a lot of things about my first husband (who could win an award for worst husband ever) that I don’t want my son (his son too) to read about his father.
I tend to not save anything anymore because I worry about what might be found upon my death that could hurt other people and I don’t want that.
All my unpublished writings will be burned after I die by my friend Max. As extra security, his mother Mrs. Brod has been made aware of my final wishes.
If it’s an online journal, I think you can use Yahoo! to schedule emails. Plan like 1 year in advance (to give loved ones time to grieve), and in the email, explain to who your writing, why you’re writing, and include your journal link. And if you don’t die by the scheduled date, make sure to reschedule the email!!
When I read some of the journal entries I made in high school and college, I cringe. But I can’t destroy them, as they hold a lot of sentimental value and are important records of who I was and why I made my decisions. In a best-case scenario, my journals would be locked away in a safe-deposit box or archive for a hundred years or so. Thus the possibility of hurting someone who knew me is pretty far removed. A great-grandchild might get some meaning from them (or at least a few laughs).
I don’t have a journal, so much as a colection of random peotry and prose. I think that it is important to keep it, so that future generations can see what went through the mind of a man in the first part of the new century. Also there are a few philosophical revaltions.
Well, a will for one. Or explicit instructions to family members (though that would be less of a guarantee).
Sniffs_Markers has about 20 years worth of journals in storage (and from someone who has travelled the world so much, that would be pretty cool) and has left specific instructions about their destruction after her demise.
I’ve kept a diary since age 9 in 1975 – it’s about 150 volumes at present, not including separate travel diaries…when I see diaries up on eBay, I feel so sad about it, especially when people break up sets and sell volumes individually.
I’ve given serious thought to leaving them to my undergraduate university on request they be kept together, or is that a daft idea, I wonder…
Lissa – thank you for your nice reply! I would definately not leave them locally, as I am none too fond of where I live, but would rather place them with my uni, or if not, the local historical society there.
My regret in life is that I had planned originally to get my degree in Museum Studies, and live happily ever after…but, no, I had to end up with a Ph D and no job in my field! (a lot of family pressure that ‘just’ the Museum Studies masters wasn’t as ‘good enough’ – from outside work, I know I would be far happier as a curator, or preservation worker, or archivist in a museum than as a professor, which is why I did not take that path…oh well!)
:smack: (both on me for not following my heart, and on certain members of my family who never have a positive thing to say about anyone!)