Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Good Letters

Home
Catholic
Dear Diary

Dear Diary

Last updated on: August 24, 2012 at 1:00 am by Peggy Rosenthal

Dear Diary 2012-08-23T17:02:32-07:00 Peggy Rosenthal

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

For my ninth birthday, I was given a green leather-bound diary with a lock and key. I treasured it and wrote in it secretly every day. Here’s what I wrote daily during the months my mother was pregnant:

Dear Diary,

I hope Mommy has a baby boy.

Yup, that was it… repeated day after day. Yet I felt I was confiding to the diary my deepest hopes and wishes.

As a young adult, when I started to think of myself as a writer, I resumed diary writing. But now it was called a journal, not a diary, and I wrote in spiral notebooks. I’d expanded my syntax and sentiments a good bit by then.

In fact, I modeled my journal on Virginia Woolf’s commonplace book: a place to keep notes on what I was reading, to record daily events and to probe my psyche, and to test out writing techniques. I’d find a metaphor for something I’d experienced, then see how far I could stretch the metaphor before it went out-of-bounds—before the metaphorical play itself became my subject.

I’d tell the students in my writing classes back then to keep a journal every day. Write about whatever you’re thinking, noticing, reading, I’d say, because it’s only through the act of writing your thoughts that you truly discover what your thoughts are.

As I describe now that experience of keeping a journal, I feel as if maybe I’m describing something archaic like the rotary telephone or the typewriter.

Because hasn’t the blogosphere replaced the personal journal?

Of course, blogs are used for countless forms of writing. There’s no way to do a scientific count, and I check-in on only the tiniest fraction of blogs out there. But my impression is that the dominant blog-genre is the opinion piece, particularly on political events: the blog as op-ed or letter to the editor.

Another genre I’ve noticed is what I’ll call letter to like-minded-folks. Many knitters, for instance, have blogs, the most popular probably being The Yarn Harlot, recounting the humorous knitting adventures of Stephanie Pearl-McPhee.

Then there’s the blog as ongoing self-discovery. A friend of mine, Belinda, began a blog when she unexpectedly started losing her eyesight in middle age. She calls the blog Losing Vision Gaining Insight.

At first the blog probed her experience of this devastating development and her efforts to find grace in it. Then later she was able to write about other things… family events, friends’ experiences, searching for beauty in the everyday.

Before blogosphere-days, Belinda would have kept a journal for all these thoughts. Her blog is indeed a journal, but one she wants to share with others, one that is in fact totally public, that anyone in the world can read.

When we write of intimate personal experiences like this, do we write differently when the audience is just oneself or if it is potentially the whole world?

Part of me wants to leap to the conclusion that of course we write differently! How can self-censorship not be at work when we’re writing for a public?

Yet Belinda’s blog (just to stay with this example, though I’ve read many others) doesn’t feel self-censored. With comfortable honesty and openness, she’s using writing to explore her personal experiences.

I myself would not be able to do this. I do still occasionally make a journal entry in my spiral-bound notebook; but the content is, say, my agony about a relationship gone bad, or something I can’t handle psychologically. I would not make the contents public any more than I would make public a tense exchange with my husband.

So I guess I’m indeed coming down on the side of a privileged place for privacy.

I love writing for this Good Letters blog, because it’s a way to exchange thoughts with a faith community that shares my passion for writing.

But there are things I would not feel appropriate sharing even with this community (and certainly not with the larger potential audience of the entire world).

I’m also sure that Stephanie Pearl-McPhee, as around-the-kitchen-table comfy as her blog is, would refrain from certain subjects in her posts such as something sweetly painful her child confided to her. That would be breaking confidence with the child; though in a private journal, a parent might want to record this. I know I did in my journal-writing days as a young parent.

I’m aware that the very notion of privacy is fast becoming passé, thanks to Facebook, Google Circles, etc. There are, I expect, strong feelings among Good Letters readers on whether bloggers can or should wear their hearts on their sleeves (assuming that a cyber-creation can have a sleeve, let alone a heart).

I’d love to hear your feelings…as long as they’re not too personal!

Peggy Rosenthal

Writing

stephanie pearl-mcphee

Previous Post

August 23, 2012

The Rock-afire Explosion and Pizza Parlor Tricks

Next Post

August 27, 2012 Orthodoxy and the Returns of Love

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category A. G. Harmon Alissa Wilkinson Allison Backous Art Authors Brad Fruhauff Bradford Winters Bryan Bliss Caroline Langston Chad Thomas Johnston Chris Hoke Christiana N. Peterson Culture D.G. Myers D.L. Mayfield Daniel Bowman Jr. David Griffith Elizabeth Duffy Faith Film Greg Wolfe Guest Contributor Interview Jan Vallone Jeffrey Overstreet Jessica Eddings-Roeser Jessica Mesman Griffith Kelly Foster Lindsey Crittenden Morgan Meis music Natalie Vestin Nick Olson Peggy Rosenthal Personal Reflection Poetry Friday Reflection Relationships Review Richard Chess Richard Cole Sara Zarr Shannon Huffman Polson Sonya Bilocerkowycz Tania Runyan Tony Woodlief Topical Categories Uncategorized Vic Sizemore Writing

Select a Month October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 February 2008

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

Who said "as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord"?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Abraham Peter Joshua Paul