Back to the Future

For the last week I've been reading a series of books written about an ancestor of mine that lived in mid 1800's. I've always enjoyed a well-written historical fiction, and these books are doubly interesting because 1. the events aren't just plausible, they're actual; and 2. I'm related. For every chapter the authors have written a little blurb about where they got their information and what parts they had to improvise.

While the historical setting and larger events come from sources like newspapers and state databases, the most part of the story is taken from journals and letters. It's fantastic that this family (all of them, it seems) kept meticulous journals, and even wrote poetry about their lives.

My journal writing has always been somewhat spotty. Sure, there was that year when I wrote every single day, but usually it's more along the lines of every month. So if, a couple hundred years from now, someone actually reads my journal and somehow decides my life is interesting enough to write about, how close would that story be to my actual life? The larger picture would be accurate: getting married, having a baby, etc. But would the readers know who I am? Would they see who I love, what I'm passionate about, what I believe?

Judging by entry frequency, I would come across first as the teenager who was infatuated with a certain boy, Ben* (I may have written about him once or twice, and even printed out and glued in a few of our IM conversations); and then suddenly the mother who can't get enough of her baby.

I wonder how much one can tell about a person just from the way one writes. Can you tell that I'm a sucker for classic novels like Pride & Prejudice, The Lord of the Rings, The Chronicles of Narnia? Can you feel the deep love I have for my family? Sense the commitment I have to my religion and to my God?

I wonder...

*Name may have been changed to preserve a certain amount of dignity

The Goal that Wasn't

New Years. I remember as a kid, each year in January my dad would have us all pull out our journals and write down goals for the year. "A goal not written is only a wish." I'm pretty sure my goals were all well-intentioned, but after that day, I don't think I ever thought of them again. It was tradition. As an adult I'm a lot more careful about making goals. I don't just casually think something up, put it in my journal, and promptly forget about it. No, my goals are carefully thought out. They are worthwhile and achievable. Last year I picked three things that I thought were both these things, wrote them down, and left the paper out so I could see it all the time and be reminded. I found that paper a few months ago when I was organising; I think it had gotten swept into a stack of other papers within a couple weeks. Oops.

So my goal setting process is still a work in progress. Maybe next year.

Just kidding. I did actually set a goal for 2010. Just one. (Of course I have myriads of other things I'm working on, but I'm already working on them- this goal is something new.) I'm not going to write it down - but that doesn't make it a wish. This is something I am going to accomplish.

Just watch me.