On my bookshelf at home 12,176 km away in Canada (that’s 7,573 miles for you non-metrics) is a thick volume that I read a few years ago. It is the published diary of Ronald Reagan, apparently written while he lived in the White House as President of the United States. One page even is a facsimile of his handwriting. I remember at the time that it seemed exciting to read about the day to day musings of a man who was the most powerful man in the world. But I am a skeptic of sorts. I wonder how much of it was edited. Are these really the thoughts that someone shared with nobody else? Or how much of it, if any, was expressly written for posterity, or shall we say consciously written to an unseen audience?
There are other diaries of famous people who are long gone, in fact some of them became famous posthumously because of their diary. One of the most famous of these is the Diary Of Anne Frank. It was written by a young girl while she was hiding for two years with her family during the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands. Both she and her parents perished in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in 1945, but her diary survived and has been published in more than 60 languages.
Or in Canada we also have the published diaries of our longest serving Prime Minister, William Lyon MacKenzie King, covering several years. Now his is a mixture of pedantic and outright boring stuff mixed with weird accounts of King’s conversations with his deceased mother and other occult séances that he was in the habit of attending.
I have kept a diary off and on throughout my life. More off than on. I started it in childhood, when we were taught that it was a good thing to do for self-discipline and other reasons that I don’t remember. Those diaries are nowhere to be found. In my adult life, I would start journaling, which is a little different from a diary. Diaries are usually a daily affair, and can contain many details including what the weather was that day. Journals tend to be a more expansive record of one’s thoughts. In fact “journaling” is recommended for charting one’s spiritual progress, or one’s thought processes about a particular subject or decision that we are pondering.
Some people write a diary or journal as a deliberate legacy to leave behind for their children, or grandchildren. While that might seem like a good idea, you will then probably be very selective about what you write there, and document only those things that you want your intended readers to know. You will probably refrain from writing things that trouble you deeply, but would rather not share with your intended readers.
But diaries and journals present some problems. The first is, that they could be read by others whom you didn’t intend, and most likely they will be, if the diary or journal is left behind when you die. Your diary will be part of the belongings that your executor needs to sort through, and dispose of. It may well fall into the hands of someone whom you would not want to read what you have written. If you are worried about that, then you will want to dispose of it while you are alive… either give it to someone whom you would like to have it, or destroy it.
The second problem is that a diary can be used against you while you are alive, if you are ever charged with a criminal offense. Although diaries and journals are private, they generally are admissible in court. I have heard of more than one person who was convicted of a crime because of what they wrote in their diary. You say, “that’s not a problem because I didn’t do anything wrong?” Well apparently even if you do not document a crime, the diary can still be used to trace your whereabouts by the events that you mention. So even if you feel like you want to kill someone – you might want to keep that sentiment to yourself. And worse, what you have written is subject to interpretation by others – the interpretation of those who wish to use the diary against you, and the interpretation of the court or jury.
I haven’t yet decided what I will do with the sporadic diary/journal that I have kept; whether I will continue to write in it, or whether I will destroy it. Since mine is a locked electronic file, I guess I can still edit it. For those who don’t keep a diary, you’ve got nothing to worry about. For those that do – it is something you might want to think about.