The more I think about journaling, the more I’m curious.  The concept of a diary to me has always been one of secrecy.  Heck, the fact that most diaries are sold with little locks tells me so, right?  I never kept one, but I’d always imagined those who did never intended for them to serve as lexicons for their life.  I always imagined they were the most personal of thoughts, written down as perhaps part of some therapeutic expression. 

As I started journaling (I suck at it mind you) I was writing in the concept that I’d imagine I *was* writing a lexicon of my life for future generations.  After all, in the Church we always hear about people reading from journals in talks, referring to historical moments, etc.  But have you ever heard someone read a journal entry that contained a deep secret of their life, or perhaps thoughts about their best friends that they never expressed (that were negative)?  I haven’t.  But why not?  If we write in journals with the knowledge that they may be read by future generations, wouldn’t we hear some of these things?  Surely even the Prophet had bad days and made note of them…angry with parents or friends, or girlfriends he thought was stinky? :-)

For me more lately my written journal has, in fact, been a therapeutic expression of things that have gotten me down.  Reflecting on it recently it reads as a book of sad and angry thoughts, writing when I’m bummed out about life, work, or other crap that frustrates me.  What causes me to be inspired to write the bad times, but not the good?  And what of these sad/bad thoughts?  Do I want my adult children/grand-children of the future to read them?  If not, what then is their purpose?  If you go through troubling times in your life whether they be personal, with other family/friends, etc. – and you journal them – are they things you’d want your future generations to read?  What would/could the future impact be on thoughts of you?  on thoughts of those you wrote about?

What about you?  Do you journal for purely yourself or for future generations?  And do you hold back those most personal, emotional moments in fear of future interpretation?

If your spouse wrote a journal of you you treat them…what would it say?