» Burn this journal!
While I never have, I’ll admit I have given it some thought. Someone I know has a yearly bonfire and I’ve considered purging years worth of writing by ceremoniously tossing them on the pile- yet I don’t.
I write for many reasons, but mostly because it’s super cheap therapy. It’s a place where you can fully express yourself in a completely unedited way. You write for you and only you… or do you? Some people write memoirs in hopes that some day they will be published, and while I suppose that idea might be nice, in my mind, I’d rather just leave something behind that can maybe inspire someone to move past a difficult time in their life.
What would you think about burning a blank journal to symbolically represent letting go? Maybe make a few notes inside of specific instances that were particularly difficult to write about?
Comments
Burn my journal? Never! Not even a symbolic one. The historian in me hopes that one day some future historian will be able to use my rambling little journal as a window into the world of the “everyday woman”.
I can see the symbolism behind it, but when I need to let go I stop the old journal and start a new one. I just did that the other day…
I don’t keep a journal but I would gladly burn some of my old notebooks. In the past I chucked them in the bin – a bonfire (of vanities) is a brilliant idea.
I compost paper from old notes and journals — only fair that when I write rot, the paper goes that way too. Good for the tomatoes as well :-)
Never! I give me chills to even think about it.
Book burnings of any kind is abhorrent to me.
I think for the most part – no to the burning. Look at the Alcotts…we’ve learned so much about life at that time and about them. I think that is one of the reasons (not the only one for sure) as to why they are still so popular today – Documentation.
I do think it’s ok to write things down and then burn them symbolically as a way of letting go or putting what you want out to the wind so to speak.
Burn a book!! What would Kurt V think about that?
Since I’m no Kurt V I would gladly burn my inane ramblings. Particularly story drafts. I’m sure future generations won’t miss them.
Hi All,
As a psychologist, I have often used the burning of self reflective journaling as a healing process. It is pretty powerful to “let go” of certain internal dialogues that no longer serve. For me, there are certainly personal journals I keep and have an interest in referring back to and then other entries that I write with the sole purpose of burning and releasing them…..thanks for the good discussion…..
I’ve kept every bit of journal writing, even my journal from when I was ten years old. For better or worse, that’s my past, those are my thoughts and I could never bear to discard it.
On more than a few writing and art projects, we’ve gone in knowing we’d burn SOMETHING. Often it was just paper.
But…
I saw a documentary film on the casting of giant bells for Buddhist temples in Japan. Prayers were written on paper and tossed into the molten metal, instantly flaring into smoke. I worked on a stained glass project. Using a stylus, the crew wrote onto the copper foil used to hold the pieces together. The glass panels are all soldered together, the writing is irretrievable. But everyone who was involved knows where their words are.
david boise ID
David – I love it….. Thanks for sharing. :o)
Burn . . . my . . . journals? NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!! Unthinkable.
I am firmly in the Oh No! side.
However, I have gleefully tossed pile of paper junk from the MIL into the recycling.
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