..preserving the past..

Recent blogs have recounted my life experiences


SEPTEMBER 8, 2007 (SATURDAY) – Recent blogs have recounted my life experiences, because that’s what several readers have said interests them the most. I’ve talked about all the jobs I ever had, all the churches I’ve ever joined, and most of the houses in which I have lived. If these kinds of blogs are not interesting to you, be of good cheer: I am bound to run out of experiences sooner or later.
I’ve written these things from memory, trying to dig things out of my mind, and attempting to keep them in order. I would like to suggest to everyone that they do this for themselves. Someone told me recently that I need to make sure that all these blogs are preserved so that my children and future generations will have them. I cannot argue the fact that when my interest in genealogy was awakened, such materials left by ancestors would have been like discovering a gold mine.
Troy Conner keeps a daily journal, written in his own hand. He has done this for most of his life. It would make interesting reading now, I’m sure, but some day it will be a priceless heirloom. So, again I say, it would be a great idea for you to write your own detailed personal history, whether anyone else sees it now or not. Future generations will definitely thank you.
Most of us have much more interesting lives than we think. Seeing it laid out in print or handwriting brings home that point. No one is going to build a museum for my writings, sermons, books, belongings and artifacts, because, let’s face it, there’s no widespread interest that merits that, but my descendants will appreciate having the things I’ve written recently. So would yours. So, why not give it a try?
In the past, saved letters were invaluable in understanding the life of someone who is no longer with us. Today, communications include few letters, because we use the telephone for most of what we used to write each other. Email is now the standard communication method for a growing number of people. It would probably be a good idea for us to print out those and file them in some way so that people who come behind us can find them and read them for a better understanding of who we were. The same holds for instant messages. I’m not acquainted with the type of messaging used in handheld devices, but I’m sure there’s a way to save those messages, too.
I think it’s worth thinking about.