It’s been over two years since I last addressed this topic, and yet it feels like there has been enough change in the times for me to talk about it once more.
The last time I wrote about my constantly growing collection of journals, it was through the lens of writing about the day-to-day during a crazy political climate. While that much is still very much true now, obviously the circumstances have altered quite a bit. Over 18 years after I started actively keeping a journal, I now find myself writing through a global pandemic.
On one hand, not a lot about my writing process has changed that much. I still write about what happened during the day, my thoughts that I otherwise wouldn’t share with anyone else, etc. On the other hand, there is a huge difference, and that is the context of what I’m writing about.
I write about work, even though it’s conducted entirely from home nowadays. I write about the news and how it constantly continues to grow more and more bleak before my eyes. I write about the interactions I have with people outside my home, knowing that the form of communication was either through text, e-mail, or a video call. I write about my limited ventures into the outside world like it’s a treat.
Last night, I filled out my most recent journal. While it was my 47th one in my collection, it’s unique in that it’s a journal that was written entirely during the shelter-in-place order. Everything that I just described before is all that can be found in my entries in this most recent volume of private writings.
Even though this journal was written entirely during this crazier than usual time, it doesn’t make the journal before it any less significant. My 46th journal contains my first mentions of COVID-19, as well as the day when the shelter-in-place order was declared. But do you want to know the interesting part? The first entry was written while I was in Hawaii last fall, a time when it was still safe to travel for leisure. The last entry was written nearly two weeks after sheltering-in-place had begun for me.
The reason I say all this is that I can’t help but speculate what will be made of these particular writings several years from now when all of this is over – not just by me, but possibly by others. Much like the last two times I wrote about my journals on here, I again look to Anne Frank. What prompted her to start revising her now famous diary was after she listened to a radio broadcast from the Dutch minister for education, art, and science the spring of 1944, when he put a call out for diaries and other personal writings documenting that treacherous period in history.
Who’s to say that a similar effort won’t be made this time around too – for writings covering both the pandemic and the overall political climate. But the great question is, would anyone want to read what I have written that’s intended for only me? My journals have never been written with the idea of being read by the public, so it’s hard to tell. That’s also why I’m not going to force it either. If such an opportunity does come my way, then and only then will I consider it.
In the mean time, I’ll keep on writing in these journals. I start a new one tonight. With all that the world has been experiencing as of late, who knows where things will be by the time I fill it out.
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Lola By The Bay 