I've just been rereading the first chapter of Robert's Masters and Commanders, and something he reiterates many times is that most of the senior military leaders kept personal diaries, despite the prohibition of doing so. He gives many explamations of why they did so, but it seems the main ones of giving them an outlet to air their views in a way that they could not do so officially (Alanbrooke being a good example) and/or with an eye on the future and having evidence of their roles and views when it came to write the memoirs etc. It made me think. I have kept a journal for many years. Not a daily diary but just somewhere I can jot done by ideas, views, moods etc. There is no intention in it being read by anyone else, and I usually destroy them. I also have a "normal" diary that I use in a conventional form - for deadlines, appointments, to-do lists etc. So, does anyone else keep a diary/journal? What dod you write about (and I don't ecpect anyone to go into any detail). Or have journals/diaries become rather obsolete in this era of social-networking sites and blogs, where it appears that people are out to live their lives in the public domain? And in recent years, many political figures have published their diaries and there appears to be a great cyncism as to the veracity of their contents - two prime examples being Campbells and Blunketts.
If i need to write down which particular lie I told that day then i'll be getting old. No diary for me :>
I've often thought about it and had a crack at it from time to time but it usually peters out. It'd be great to stick at it but I'd need it with me all the time as I usually think of the greatest ideas at the oddest moments...and then promplty forget them. I have two blogs but use them more like a magazine where I post stories as opposed to nameless freaks reading all about me!
