Day 1 of 100 Days of 100 Ways To Rule Your World

DO YOU KEEP A JOURNAL?

If you know me, then you know that I am a History buff. Having played a role in Cold War History, I know the importance of the keeping a journal (a diary). There are numerous reasons people have for keeping a journal maybe just as many reasons that people have for reading other people’s journals/diaries. One reason, I firmly believe is to experience the past the way others lived it. Personally, I cherish the notes, letters, and writings that I created when I was living in Berlin during the mid-1980s. While the notes themselves are NOT great literary works of art they are priceless nonetheless. Priceless to me, at least.

I bet that most people that know me do not know that I have kept some form of a journal since 1985. I have never been 100% faithful to the entry part of keeping a journal but I have been faithful to having a place to write down names, events, exchanges, notes, and what not. For the most part, when I did write I wrote about what struck me as noteworthy on that day. I know some people would be surprised at the level of detail that some of those entries contain. Then again, there are some entries that are quick and to the point such as “September 18, 1986: walked to Andrews with Farrell and picked up two doner kebabs” (it was a Thursday by the way).

So why keep a journal?

There is an old quote from Spanish Philosopher, Essayist, Poet and Novelist: George Santayana in his book “Vol. I, Reason in Common Sense” answers this question: “Progress, far from consisting in change, depends on retentiveness. When change is absolute there remains no being to improve and no direction is set for possible improvement: and when experience is not retained, as among savages, infancy is perpetual. Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”

Besides in a hundred days from now you can reflect on what you have learned about me or better still what you learned about yourself over the course of these 100 Days, 100 Ways series of blog posts.

Is it difficult to keep a journal?

At first, it appears to be a daunting task but once you get into it you can you can have a good time capturing moments. 2012 compared to 1985 there are more tools available to you than I had then. Now all of us have almost instant (24/7) access to blogs, video, audio recording options on our smart phones and of course, we still have pen and paper (my journal weapons of choice).

The only difficult part is getting started. Thus the challenge has been made, find your weapons of choice and get started journal-ling! Start recording your place in history. Start now!

Thank you,
David Guerra
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